Bad Romance
by Lily Orange
Summary: On the same night at exactly the same time, cousins Caitlin & Emmy Piper and Sirius Black find themselves on the doorstep of James Potter - who is too obsessed with Lily to notice a blossoming romance, involving a girl also liked by one Regulus Black...
1. Slipping Through My Fingers

_**Bad Romance**_

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. __The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. __On September the 1__st__, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. __Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N: _Hi, I'm back! This is my new multi-chapter story - which I hope you like just as much and maybe even MORE than **Such Sweethearts **and **You Leave Me Breathless**! I have to say, I have written up to Chapter Nine on this story and I am incredibly excited about it and am practically bursting with ideas for it (that isn't a very nice image...) so as I post I will write! Last week we had some days off school because of the snow so I got a great start into it :) Please review LIKE CRAZY and tell me what you think!

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**Chapter One**

_**Slipping Through My Fingers**_

It was the hottest day of the summer so far, and Caitlin and Emmy Piper had decided to make the most of it whilst it lasted in the back garden of their home. Caitlin's parents, Emmy's aunt and uncle, who had looked after Emmy since she was five when her own parents passed away, were sat inside, preferring the coolness and shade of the indoors as opposed to the full glare of the sun outdoors.

In fact, Emmy wasn't that keen on being outdoors when it was so flaming hot and sunny. It was Caitlin who adored sunshine; she thought, in Emmy's opinion, that whenever the temperature rose above freezing it was an occasion to get out one of her many bikinis and sunbathe in the back garden in view of their next door neighbours' tree, in which their next door neighbour Tom (who was the same age as both Caitlin and Emmy, sixteen, and the most womanising boy Emmy had ever met in her whole entire life) frequently sat, sunning herself until she had built up a sufficiently golden tan. Emmy, unfortunately, had to sit in the shade otherwise she burnt until she was the colour of a ripe tomato – which she knew would happen from bitter experience.

Virtually every spring, summer and autumn, Caitlin dragged Emmy outside and whilst she lay on a beach towel in the middle of the lawn, Emmy sat in the shade provided by the overhanging branches of Tom's tree, because if she didn't, she would turn the colour of a lobster, which would be great for an actual lobster as they could have used their now scarlet shell to attract another lobster and create a lobster family with lots of baby lobsters – but Emmy, obviously, wasn't a lobster, she was a sixteen-year-old girl and sixteen-year-old boys didn't find Lobster Girls attractive. Not that she knew of, anyway. There was probably some boy, somewhere, who had a weird fetish for girls who resembled lobsters but that would suggest he was quite strange and not a good candidate for being a potential boyfriend.

Emmy shook these rather abnormal thoughts out of her head and leaned back in her deck chair, pitched obstinately in the shade, even though Caitlin had offered to go inside and find the factor fifty suncream that was lying around somewhere in the house so that she could lie down and relax in the heat too. Emmy refused, saying the deck chair was probably more comfortable than a towel on the ground. She didn't even know why they _owned _deck chairs – although they lived in a hot country, they lived nowhere near the sea and their small neighbourhood was full of English people, namely workers for the Ministry of Magic abroad.

Caitlin's parents worked for the Ministry, for the Auror Department, and had been posted out in Albania for seven years. They had used to live in Britain, in London, next door to Emmy's parents in a neat suburb, and when Emmy's parents had died, Emmy had moved in with them and naturally moved to Albania with them too. She didn't really know how her parents had died, apart from the fact that they had worked for the same office as Caitlin's parents. Her aunt and uncle hastily changed the subject whenever it was brought up – Emmy didn't think they were with that for the time being, but she knew in future that she would want to know what _really_ happened.

Emmy glanced upward, and smirked when she saw a dark blue Converse trainer resting on a branch suspiciously, signifying that Tom had taken his post in the tree and was probably now watching Caitlin sunbathe like the crazy stalker he was. Upon further inspection, she could discern his sunglasses looking out from between the leaves. She thought of warning Caitlin that her juvenile stalker was sat in his prime stalking position, his tree, but, to be honest, she probably wasn't bothered. She wouldn't have flaunted herself in a bright teal bikini if she was.

"Enjoying the shade there, Emmy?" Caitlin called from her spot in the very centre of the garden, by the pond, where Emmy swore she was emanating a golden glow, she was tanning that much.

"Obviously," Emmy replied nonchalantly, leaning back more so she could continue to try and see where exactly Tom was in the tree. She didn't know why he had this insane attraction to Caitlin. He had girls falling at his feet at their Albanian magic school, and went out with a lot of them, but still continued to persistently chase Caitlin, who was seemingly not bothered by him. She declined every invitation to go out with him, and instead busied herself with boys from the school Quidditch teams. Although Tom was quite athletic, at school he tended to race through the corridors either with his friends or from frantic girls chasing him as an alternative to exercising his talents on the Quidditch pitch.

"I'm definitely enjoying the sun," Caitlin informed her cousin in her sugary sweet voice, rolling over and leaving her back to the mercy of the sun. Emmy rolled her eyes as she mentally lambasted the sun – obviously she knew it was necessary as a source of light, but did people not _know _how to operate light switches? Or how to light a candle? It would have made Emmy's life a whole lot easier if it wasn't there as she wouldn't have had to worry about possibly spontaneously metamorphosing into Lobster Girl every time she walked out the front door without six inches of factor fifty slathered onto her pale skin.

"You would," Emmy muttered, practically sensing Tom salivating all over the leaves as her glamorous cousin turned. She could definitely hear rustling in it, so turned to look up again. There was a leg, patently Tom's, hooked around a low branch that wasn't as obscured by leaves as the others to stop him from falling out of the tree – so he was certainly sitting in it, as per usual. She once again contemplated whether or not to warn Caitlin of the fact that Tom was gawping at her in the tree, but she was too busy acting like a swimsuit model instead of her actual profession of sixteen-year-old school girl.

So Emmy decided to take the mature approach as she was, after all, the most intelligent girl in her year and therefore a logical thinker. She noticed her Aunt had left a large basket of apples by the back gate after picking them off their apple tree in the corner of the garden, so she took the choice to utilise them to great effect – instead of eating them. Whilst Caitlin lay across her towel on the grass, exhibiting her flawlessly curvaceous body, she sneakily began to throw apples up at the tree in order to hit Tom.

"Ow!" she heard him squeak as she managed to expertly hit her target (his head) with a particularly big apple she had found after rummaging around at the bottom of the basket. This was much more fun than worrying about whether she could sit out in the sun for longer than five minutes without turning into the dreaded Lobster Girl or thinking about Caitlin's ever-changing love life.

"Flaming– ARGH!" he screeched in a surprisingly high note as the next apple flew into the tree and, with Emmy's excellent aim (due to her prestigious role of Chaser on one of the school teams, the _best _school team), hit him where it was supposed to.

Emmy giggled and the sound of her laughing coupled with Tom's high-pitched shriek brought Caitlin out of her groggy state on her beach towel and she looked up to see her cousin sat in her deck chair with a demented smile on her face, clutching a basket of apples.

"Um – Emmy, what exactly are you doing?" Caitlin questioned her charily, unsure as to whether she should be anxious as to her cousin's current state of mind.

"Oh, nothing," Emmy grinned back charmingly, satisfying Caitlin with her vague answer, who rolled back over and closed her eyes.

"I'll get you, Emmy," Tom hissed menacingly from the tree as Emmy continued to repeatedly throw apples at him like a giddy five-year-old.

"Oh yeah, with what?" she whispered back, still grinning to herself at the hilarity of the situation.

"This," he said, and nanoseconds later, all of the apples came back down out of the tree, directed at Emmy's head. She saw them, and with a split-second reaction, dived out of the way, onto the grass, and into the glare of the sun. She heard him chortling away to himself in the sanctuary of his tree.

"Thanks Tom," she called, not caring whether or not Caitlin heard her now, "if I turn into a lobster thanks to you chucking apples at me, then I'll be calling my lawyer."

"You don't have a lawyer," he yelled back, popping his head out of the tree. He looked really funny, with his tanned face and tousled chocolate hair grinning at her through the branches and leaves.

"Says who?" Emmy retorted, scrabbling back into the shade, regardless of the fact she was going through a flower bed and now had a grass stain and soil dirtying her white vest top and denim shorts.

"Me, the fountain of knowledge," he replied, as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. Emmy snorted with laughter at this and sat back in her deck chair, staring at Tom, who was staring at Caitlin insatiably, who was asleep.

"The only thing _you're _a fountain of knowledge on is Caitlin," Emmy informed him, "because you are _OBSESSED_."

"I'm not obsessed!" Tom protested, then he smiled. "Why, has she mentioned me lately?"

"Uh, no," Emmy told him truthfully.

"Well, I have this Master Plan, see, what I'm going to do is–" Tom began, but Emmy never found out what his Master Plan to get Caitlin to like him was. Halfway through his sentence, both Tom and Emmy heard a huge bang coming from inside the house, almost as if the front door was being battered down. Even Caitlin heard it – she jumped up in surprise and wrapped the towel around her, her olive eyes wide with fear. Emmy got up from her deck chair and ran to the back window of the house, which looked into the kitchen. The door into the living room was open slightly, and what Emmy could see made her freeze in utter horror.

Brightly coloured sparks – spells – were ricocheting off of the walls and pictures and ornaments were smashing, falling to the floor and littering it with shards of glass and china. She could see four cloaked figures inside, moving round, yelling curses as her aunt and uncle tried helplessly to fight back. They were Aurors – but had been caught off guard.

"What is it?" Caitlin asked in terror, clocking Emmy's face had paled even beyond her normal skin tone.

Emmy couldn't reply – her voice had gone with the shock of the sight she was witnessing. Her aunt turned to see Emmy's face at the window – a tear escaped her eye and she mouthed, "Run."

Emmy didn't need to be told twice – she grabbed Caitlin's hand, who clamoured to get to the window over Emmy's shoulder, but Emmy wrapped her arms around her cousin's waist, pulling her towards the fence, as they heard a harrowing voice bellow, "_CRUCIO_!"

"Emmy, what's happening? What's going on in there?" Caitlin cried hysterically, refusing to be pulled over the fence. Tom leaped out of the tree and grabbed her, lifting her over it against her will.

"Death Eaters," was all Emmy could choke out as she clambered over the fence, grabbing Tom's offered hand.

"What?" Caitlin caterwauled.

"Be quiet, or they'll hear us," Tom said, suddenly taking charge. "Did your aunt and uncle manage to communicate a message?" he asked gently, turning to Emmy.

"Run," Emmy whispered. Tom nodded, and took both of their hands, and dragged them towards his back gate. He unlatched it and let them out into the woodland path behind. As he locked it behind him, Caitlin began to cry, tears coming out in soft sobs, and she was shivering underneath her blanket.

"Come, run alongside me," he said, and, with their hands still in his, they began to sprint along the path, weaving between the trees and jumping over fallen branches as if they had been meant to do it all of their lives. The two girls were crying at Tom determinedly led them, with a destination in mind. It felt as if they had been running for hours when he finally stopped in front of a tall tree with a rope ladder leaning against the trunk.

"What is this, Tom?" Caitlin asked, wiping tears off of her beautiful face and looking upwards.

"My tree house," he announced proudly, "and our hideout for the time being. Caitlin, you go first, then Emmy, and then I'll go."

Caitlin stepped towards the ladder, and put her bare foot on the first rung. She felt the friction between her skin and the rough woven rope burn but she ploughed on and upwards, still shaking rapidly, breathing heavily and weeping silently. She kept the towel wrapped tightly around her for protection, but her skin was cold to touch. It was cool in the forest, unlike the blistering hot temperature in the back garden of their house. She glanced down when she was nearing the top – Tom and Emmy were still standing on the ground. They had relinquished holding hands, and Tom smiled at her encouragingly. She spurred on, putting her hands on the wood of the tree house, and lifted herself inside. It was much bigger on the inside than the out; and there was books, cushions and boxes littering the edges of it. She crawled over to a corner where there was nothing leaning against the wooden wall, and curled up in a ball, covering herself with her towel.

Soon, Emmy joined her. Caitlin moved forward slightly to sit next to her, and they leaned on each other for support as the tears flowed freely down their faces. Tom was last, and he pulled up the rope ladder and closed the wooden trapdoor.

_I hope you liked the first chapter, please REVIEW to your heart's content! Thanks for reading, love and hugs,_

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	2. If You Want Blood You Got It

**_Bad Romance_**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N: _Thank you to Ash Blue, sarlovesoccer, DSS Special Agent, Stephie Cat-Kat and spannieren for reviewing; thank you to sarlovesoccer and Stephie Cat-Kat for adding my story to your favourites and thank you to Ash Blue, Bramble Icedancer, DSS Special Agent and Stephie Cat-Kat for adding my story to your alerts! I hope you like this chapter - and, like the last chapter, it is named after a song, so if you can tell me what the songs are I'll be really happy :) Please leave a review!

Ooh, and there is a poll on my profile as to the outcome of this story, so please go and vote when you've read this chapter! Thanks :)

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**Chapter Two**

_**If You Want Blood You Got It**_

It was nearly just a week left until Sirius Black could return to school on September the First, and could escape the hell hole that was Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. He had managed to survive the past few weeks by either locking himself in his room or going out all the time.

His mother was constantly watching him like an overweight hawk festooned with ancient family jewellery in a velvet armchair from underneath the stairs. His father prowled the corridors in what was supposed to be Sirius' home waiting for a chance to run into his estranged son. His mother had even commissioned a special piece of artwork, now hung right beside the front door, depicting herself. In the event of Sirius sneaking out of the house without permission, she would shriek uncontrollably until Sirius' real mother, or indeed his father, came to beat him.

Most times when this had happened, Sirius went anyway, slamming the front door behind him and walking out into the sunny outdoors to meet his fellow Marauders in Diagon Alley. He was sure that they were probably sick of going there virtually every day, eating ice creams from Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour (Florean had now taken pity on them and gave them ice creams for free) and goggling at the new racing brooms and equipment in Quality Quidditch Supplies. If it was raining, they would all go round to James' and lazily play Quidditch in the summer sun.

There was a knock at Sirius' bedroom door. He subconsciously picked up his wand off the bedside table and walked towards the door, past the numerous posters he had stuck up on his walls using a Permanent Sticking Charm. He had done it mainly to annoy his parents – he got a kick out of doing so. He had covered his walls, once damasked wallpaper, with large posters of motorbikes (it was his ambition to own one), photos of the Marauders and his friends, even one of Lily and James (though she was hitting him ferociously in it, she had a big grin on her face), Gryffindor memorabilia everywhere and, the icing on the cake, three large posters, taken from a muggle magazine he had bought in a newsagents on the way to Diagon Alley (Lily had taught him how to use Muggle money and had given him some for his birthday), of bikini-clad muggle girls smiling at him sexily as he walked past. He sometimes wished these posters were animated, instead the smiles and poses were frozen as was the way for Muggle pictures and posters, but he enjoyed looking at them all the same.

He yanked it open to see his brother Regulus standing in front of him. Regulus was a year younger than him and far more impressionable. Whilst Sirius was physically repulsed by his parents' ideology about purebloods, Regulus soaked it up like a sponge and pandered to them, wanting to be the perfect son after he had been sorted into Slytherin and Sirius into Gryffindor. Sirius was constantly reminded by his whining mother that Regulus was a much better son than he was.

"What?" Sirius asked impatiently, blocking the door. Regulus didn't even look taken aback by the way Sirius acted around him. They didn't have a good relationship – Sirius had tried to look after him and encourage him to see muggle-borns as the same as them, but Regulus went round with a group of Slytherins at school who jeered at and bullied the muggle-borns, including Lily Evans, Sirius' friend. Sirius would never forgive his brother if he hurt Lily, James' girl (or soon-to-be girl), or anybody else in fact.

He seemingly couldn't be saved.

"Can I come in?" Regulus requested, examining his fingernails nonchalantly as Sirius grunted back at him and moved aside. Regulus wandered in, taking in what Sirius had done to his room. The motorbike and bikini girl posters were new since he had last been in here.

He wandered over to examine them – but, like he suspected, they didn't move. They were muggle.

"They're attractive," he commented malevolently, looking back at his brother with raised eyebrows.

"What do you want, Regulus?" Sirius prompted him, crossing his arms and leaning against his desk, which was littered with bits of parchment, letters from various people over the summer which had accumulated in big piles all over his desk and any other surface available.

"Can I sit down?" Regulus questioned, playing for time, just to annoy his older brother.

"Spit it out, Regulus, I haven't got all day," Sirius growled at him, his stormy grey eyes flashing angrily.

"Fine, I won't sit down," Regulus said dryly, trying anything in order to provoke his brother. Every time his brother rose to it, which wasn't very often these days, Regulus would just tell their parents and they would beat Sirius senseless. "But I do have something to tell you."

"Well go on then," Sirius moaned, then muttered, "am I supposed to be telepathic as well as a bigoted fool?"

"What was that?" Regulus sharply enquired, turning to look at his brother, his own blue-grey eyes fiery and annoyed. Sirius and Regulus did look quite like each other – both had alabaster skin, dark hair and the haughty, aristocratic good looks that was so prominent in the Black family. However, whilst Sirius was handsome, charismatic and quite a catch for the girls of Hogwarts with his dark, shoulder-length tousled hair and his breath taking smile, Regulus was almost like the ghost of somebody good-looking. He was attractive, but not as much as his brother – he had shadows under his sparkling eyes and his hair was shorter and straighter, and he himself had a smaller build than his six-foot-four, broad-shouldered, muscular brother.

"Nothing," Sirius responded automatically, "but can you tell me what you've got to say, I've got things to do."

"What, hang around Diagon Alley everyday eating ice cream with your idiotic friends like a homeless person? Chat up girls have a less than admirable bloodline and snog as many as you want? Writing letters planning stupid practical jokes with that complete imbecile of a friend you have James Potter?" Regulus said maliciously, practically spitting out James' name with the amount of hatred he had for the boy. This pushed Sirius to the edge – he strode forward purposefully and said, right in his brothers face, bending down to him as he was a good four inches shorter,

"Do _not _make fun of my friends or my life."

"Why wouldn't I? It's just a joke," Regulus continued and stepped out of the way as Sirius lunged forward and ended up leaning against the wall, his head pounding in anger. "Anyway, about what I had to tell you..."

"What is it?" Sirius questioned. "Found yourself a little girlfriend who finds slimy weasels attractive? Or manage to get voted Worst Person in the School?"

"Very funny," Regulus said monotonously, "but there are very few girls at school worthy of our pureblood status and pretty enough to be a girlfriend for me."

"There are no girls at school who'd go out with a supercilious slimeball like you, you're worse than Snivellus," Sirius muttered to himself harshly, but this time his brother chose to ignore him.

"I have decided what I want to do with my life, which is considerably more than you, anyway," Regulus said provokingly.

"I have decided what I want to do with my life too – it's not my fault my stupid family doesn't choose to accept it," Sirius replied matter-of-factly.

"Yeah, like being an _Auror _is a worthy ambition," Regulus scoffed. Sirius frowned irritably. "I'm going to be something much, _much _better than that. As soon as I've finished school, I'm going to be contributing to the biggest and most successful cause of our time."

"What, Support the Slytherin Slimeballs of Our Society?" Sirius snorted with laughter.

"No, I'm going to become a Death Eater," Regulus informed him. Sirius looked at him in alarm, his eyes wide with shock.

"You have to be joking," was all he could say as he walked towards his brother once more. He grabbed his shoulders and began to shake him violently and yell at him. "You can't be a Death Eater! You have your whole life ahead of you! Regulus, you can't! You just can't! You're so much more than that!"

"It's my decision," Regulus informed him, shoving his brother's hands off of his shoulders, "and mother and father support it fervently."

"They would," Sirius said darkly. "You need some sense knocking into you!"

"Do it then, see if I care!" Regulus shouted back.

"Fine, I will," Sirius said, and swung his fist right into the centre of his brother's face. A crack signifying a broken nose was heard, and Regulus began to yell in pain.

"What's going on?" a chilling voice said as the door was slammed open to reveal Orion Black, ageing but still with the same cold look on his face. He was followed by Walburga, with a vicious expression shining through her facial features.

"Sirius just punched me because I told him I'm going to be a Death Eater!" Regulus whined piteously, scrambling over the bed and behind his parents.

"Why would you do that? It is the worthiest thing he could dedicate his life to being!" Walburga shouted agitatedly.

"They kill innocent people," Sirius roared, "they are evil, moronic and psychotic! Why do you think Bellatrix joined up?"

"Why you insolent little– CRUCIO!" Orion cried, pointing his wand at his eldest son heartlessly.

_

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So we meet the Black family... thanks for reading, I'd really appreciate hearing what you think so please leave a review :) have a great week!

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	3. Please Don't Leave Me

_**Bad Romance**_

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. __The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. __On September the 1__st__, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. __Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer: _I wish I was but I'm not JK Rowling!

_A/N: _Thank you to GeorgiaPeach20, fanny-kun, DSS Special Agent, spannieren and Ash Blue for reviewing and thank you to fanny-kun for adding my story to your alerts. Please keep voting in the poll on my profile! Thanks for reading, please review as I'd really appreciate knowing what you think :) This chapter goes back to the events going on with Caitlin and Emmy, I hope you like it!

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**Chapter Three**

_**Please Don't Leave Me**_

They sat in silent for a few moments – none of them knowing what to say. Caitlin was inconsolable, and Tom watched her sadly as she wept.

"Are you cold?" he suddenly asked, breaking the silence abruptly.

She nodded, not quite able to summon the words to reply. Tom pulled one of the boxes towards him and took out an over-sized t-shirt.

"You could wear it as a dress," he suggested. The corner of her mouth twitched as if she was going to smile, but couldn't, as she took it off him gratefully and put it on with so much grace it was hard not to watch her.

"Are you hungry?" Tom enquired nervously about a quarter of an hour later. Emmy had almost stopped crying, but Caitlin was still quietly sobbing, chewing her nails incessantly.

"Yes," Emmy replied, finding the urge to speak. Caitlin looked up, her olive eyes speaking to Tom, meeting his warm blue eyes emphatically. He took a large bar of Honeydukes' Chocolate out of the same box and broke it in half and gave each half of it to the two girls.

"Eat it," he prompted them. "It's not poisoned."

Caitlin ravenously devoured her half, and began to regain some colour in her cheeks and sat up. Emmy was more reserved, breaking off each individual piece and then letting it slowly melt on her tongue.

"How long will we have to wait here?" Caitlin asked meekly.

"Not long, I don't think," Tom replied.

"Will your parents be okay?" Emmy questioned him.

"They aren't in the house, they went shopping," he answered, leaning back against a fluffy blue cushion.

"When will we know to go back?" Caitlin asked him again.

"We'll go back in an hour or two, but when we do, we'll perform Disillusionment charms, if you want," Tom said soothingly, putting her hand in his. Caitlin squeezed it appreciatively, and lay on the floor, finding a comfortable position and closing her eyes, to block out what had just happened.

"How come you've got Honeydukes' Chocolate?" Emmy said interestedly. She was trying to divert her mind from what kept replaying like a broken record. The image of her aunt, kneeling on the ground, at the mercy of the Death Eaters, whose spells were reverberating round the room perilously, looking so broken and dishevelled, would haunt her for the rest of her life.

Tom smiled. "My grandma often goes there, to the shop in Hogsmeade," he answered. "She sends me a bar every week, with her letters. I leave it in here to eat in case of emergency. It's nice to have other people here – it's normally me by myself, thinking."

"About what?" Emmy asked curiously.

The way Tom's Caribbean blue eyes flitted to the sleeping form of Caitlin told Emmy all she needed to know.

"Do you love her?" she whispered.

Tom looked back up to her. "I don't know. I've never been intrigued by anybody quite so much, or felt compelled to look at somebody all day long. I guess time will tell."

Emmy gave him a half smile and shifted herself onto a grey cushion beside her.

"They'll never leave you, Emmy," Tom murmured softly to her.

"Sorry?" she replied, feeling a strange juxtaposition of safety and vulnerability at the same time when she listened to Tom's words.

"Your parents," he continued, "they'll always be watching over you. They'll always be looking after you."

"How can they do that? They're dead," Emmy scoffed – and then remembered that her aunt and uncle were probably with them now. In heaven.

"The ones that love us never _really_ leave us," Tom said comfortingly. His words infiltrated her mind like a warm glow, making her feel... happy. At peace.

"Thank you, Tom," Emmy said, meaning it from the bottom of her heart.

"For what?" Tom said, completely clueless.

"For getting us out of there, for bringing us here, for calming Caitlin down, for feeding us, for comforting us, for making me feel better and for what you are most likely to do in the future," Emmy told him. Tom reddened at this and spluttered a bit before they lapsed into a comfortable silence, the only sound present Caitlin murmuring softly to herself in her sleep.

*

When Caitlin awoke, she could tell that it was dark outside, and she could also see that Emmy had dropped off to sleep as well. Tom, however, was wide awake, and when her eyes met his, he smiled reassuringly, and squeezed her hand. Caitlin suddenly realised that he had never let go of her hand, and she had slept holding it as well. Just knowing that he had been there while she slept comforted and consoled her, and she heaved herself up to sit next to him.

"Should we go back now?" she murmured in his ear, still not ready to raise her voice to its usual volume.

"We've been here four hours," Tom informed her, "I think it may be safe now. My parents will be back, anyway. You can stay in my house until something is sorted out – now my sister has left home, there's the spare room, which you and Emmy could share."

"Thank you, Tom," Caitlin smiled. "I think we should wake Emmy up and go back, otherwise people will be worried."

"Aren't you?" Tom asked in surprise.

"Not as much as I was before," she confessed. "Something you said comforted me."

"What? I haven't _really _said anything," Tom replied.

"I think you said it to Emmy – 'The ones that love us never really leave us'," she beamed at him.

"But – you were asleep!" he said in confusion, wrinkling his nose.

"That's what you think," Caitlin said playfully, and she tapped Emmy's shoulder lightly. "Emmy, wake up," she whispered. Emmy rolled over and pushed her honey-coloured hair out of her face sleepily, slowly opening her eyes.

"What's the matter?" Emmy asked sharply. Even her sleep had been infiltrated by what she had seen. She had just endured a horrible dream – the Death Eaters were restaurant critics and her aunt and uncle were the waiters, and the Death Eaters kept sending the food back and it was burning their hands every time, the dishes of scolding hot foot was blistering their skin, causing them unbearable pain. It was a strange dream, but nevertheless a disturbing one considering what had just happened.

"Don't worry, we're going back now," Caitlin assured her. Emmy sat up and smiled blearily at her cousin and her friend.

"Are you sure you want to go now?" Tom asked them. Emmy nodded ardently, and Caitlin did as well. There was still the possibility that her parents were alive, safe and being cared for by Ministry of Magic officials, or back up Aurors. Both girls wanted more than anything for this to be the case.

"I'll go down first," Tom declared, opening the trap door and dropping the rope ladder down. He jumped down it rapaciously and, when he was at the bottom, looked up and beckoned for the two girls to follow. Emmy did first, her tomboyish tendencies taking over – she always gave everything a go and got on well with the boys at school. Caitlin instead was very girly, always picking truth in games of Truth or Dare played late into the night when the boys had sneaked into their dormitory at school (her cousin picked the contrary) and considered boys for romancing, not befriending.

Caitlin slowly climbed down the ladder, and when she got to the bottom, Tom took her hand, and Emmy's, as they walked through the trees. Caitlin meant everything to Tom – Emmy was his friend as well, and he was holding her hand too, but they had a mutual understanding of friendship, teasing and discussing Caitlin; in her case, it was a friendly gesture, nothing more, and Emmy knew that, and was content. He clutched Caitlin's hand like it was a matter of life or death, not wanting her to ever let go.

The forest was peaceful as they stepped through it, hopping over the branches calmly and slipping through the trees when they were dense. Soon they were near the woodland path they had first run along, and they began to walk along the back of the houses, their heart beats quickening as they anxiously anticipated what they would find when they returned to the house.

Caitlin breathed in slowly as Tom unlatched his back gate and let them through. They looked over the fence cautiously – the house was silent.

"Do you think it's safe to go inside?" Emmy asked – but as she was about the swing her leg over the fence, Tom's parents, followed by four people the trio didn't recognise. They all had solemn looks on their faces, and Tom's mother had tears in her eyes.

The two girls immediately saw in their faces what had happened – Caitlin broke down onto the floor again, sobbing uncontrollably. Emmy leaned against the fence for support – she was all cried out, but she could feel her heart beating against her chest as if she was sinking into an abyss.

"Caitlin, shush..." Tom said, kneeling down beside her, attempting to comfort her for the second time that day. He put his arm around her, and she clung to him for dear life, crying into his t-shirt and forgetting all the people stood before them.

"You are the two Miss Pipers, I presume?" one of the four people said, not unkindly. He was a tall black man with a deep, soothing voice, almost like velvet.

"Yes," Emmy answered, choking her words out again.

"Are you Emmanuelle Piper?" the man asked, stepping forward.

"Just Emmy, please," she replied, shaking his outstretched hand.

"I'm Kingsley Shacklebolt, I'm an Auror," he introduced himself. "This is Alastor Moody, Lilia Davenport and Elisabeth Beetle. They're Aurors too," he said slowly, allowing Emmy to take it all in as Caitlin was incapacitated, Tom holding onto her tightly and whispering soothing words into her ear.

"We've come to take you to Britain," Alastor Moody said in a gruff voice – but, again, it wasn't unkind.

"We have no relatives in Britain," Emmy said in perplexity.

"You're going to live with your uncle's old school friends, who were named in his will as whom you were to live with. They were also named in your parents' will, Emmy, to be your guardian if anything ever happened to your aunt and uncle," Kingsley Shacklebolt informed her.

"Who?" she asked.

"Charlus and Dorea Potter," he said. "They have a son your age, James, who goes to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, which is where you will be going as of September the first, in one week."

"When do we leave to go there?" Emmy questioned them, taking charge. Caitlin was now slightly calmer, and was now standing up, being supported by Tom.

"As soon as possible, right at this moment is preferable," Moody said.

"But – I can't leave!" Caitlin gasped.

"You can and you must, Miss Piper," Moody told her.

"What about school? What about our belongings? What about our house?" she gabbled.

"They are not as important as your safety," Moody said, "which is our priority at the moment. This portkey leaves in one minute and will take us directly to the Potters' house, where they are ready and waiting for you."

"No, I can't go!" Caitlin said tenaciously, stamping her foot and clutching Tom's arm.

"Caitlin, come on," Emmy said invitingly, holding out her hand whilst she walked towards the Aurors.

"What about a funeral?" Caitlin persisted, refusing to let go of Tom's hand.

"We'll sort it out for you, dear," Tom's mother said kindly.

"I want to be there!" Caitlin insisted whilst the Aurors looked on exasperatedly.

"You can be, Caitlin," Tom assured her. Caitlin smiled at him, a tear falling from her eye, and kissed his cheek.

"Write to me, Tom," she said. It wasn't a request – it was a necessity.

"Don't worry, I will," he sniffed. "Now go, Caitlin. You'll be fine."

She did as she was told and joined the Aurors and her cousin by the portkey, an old punctured football. She just had time to look back at Tom and her house before it glowed blue and began to spin them. She felt the familiar nauseating lurch in her stomach, pulling her towards the object and simultaneously towards their destination.

Not a moment later, Caitlin and Emmy were stood in the garden of a large Georgian-looking house, surrounded by green countryside, with Kingsley Shacklebolt stood behind them, the other Aurors having apparated away once they knew the two girls were safe.

And that was how, at one minute past midnight on the twenty-fifth of August, Emmy and Caitlin Piper found themselves standing on the Potters' doorstep.

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I hope you liked it! What do you think of Caitlin and Emmy? Are they likable characters? I hope so :) Please leave a review, I'd love it if everybody who read this reviewed and spread the word ;P Thanks for reading, have a great rest of the week and weekend, love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	4. The First Cut Is The Deepest

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: I'm hoping everybody likes this as I haven't had as many hits as **Such Sweethearts **and **You Leave Me Breathless **- though thank you muchly to Stephanie Cat-Kat, Ash Blue, sarlovesoccer, spannieren and fanny-kun for your lovely reviews! Sorry I didn't update yesterday, firstly I had school and then I was out all evening and I had some very good news regarding my English exam so I am on top of the world ;) I hope you like this chapter, and that it isn't too depressing. I promise that it'll get less so as the story progresses - ooh, and last night at a ridiculous time in the morning/night (it was around midnight!) I planned the story right until the end, so I have a good idea of what is to happen!

And if anybody knows who sang the song the chapter shares the title of I will be seriously happy - same with the last three chapters. Anybody who can name all of the people who sang them then you are amazing! If not, you're still amazing anyway :)

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**Chapter Four**

_**The First Cut Is The Deepest**_

Sirius began to scream in pain, writhing on the floor wretchedly as the spell took hold of his body – he tried to fight it, but it just wouldn't work. The spell was too powerful, it controlled him, he shrieked as it made his body burn... he kicked and cried as the throbbing and hurt rapidly increased, the power escalating as his father cast the spell again mercilessly. He gashed his hand on a nail in the floorboards, his body bruised as he jerked and writhed.

He tried to remember happy times and memories with his friends as he was on the floor, his body weakening and his mind going crazy... but every time he tried, his father increased the severity of the spell, torturing him, every time almost to the brink of insanity – but then he stopped... his father wanted him to live with these memories to remind him he was an awful son... he had scuppered their expectations, he was the black sheep of the family and would never be loved...

As Sirius breathed heavily before his mother began to torment him, he remembered for a fleeting moment that he _was _loved. That split second was all it took to remind him that he had James, the boy who really was his brother, the brother he chose; Remus and Peter; Lily, Lily's friends and all those people he knew who liked him...

Every summer his parents tried to make him believe that he was weak, worthless and the equivalent value of a piece of dirt on their shoe, a disappointment and somebody not worth a life; but for the rest of the year, he felt wonderful, he felt loved and he felt at home. The people at Hogwarts, his fellow Marauders and the Potter family made him feel loved and like he was at home with a family. They were the family he chose for himself because he would be appreciated, he would be loved and he would be cared for and cared about.

This thought seemed to strengthen him as his mother resumed the use of the Cruciatus Curse on him as a punishment, and he let the pain come as he pictured in his mind all the people that liked him, that loved and appreciated him. Just because these three people, who were supposed to do those things, didn't, it didn't mean that he was worthless and that he wasn't loved.

He just had to survive – and the only way to survive was to be with his family. His real family. The ones he chose for himself.

He kept this in mind as he writhed on the floor, the pain not hurting as much anymore. When his parents concluded, he smiled as he lay on the floor, actually content with himself and his thoughts.

"What do you find funny, boy?" Orion demanded as he caught a glimpse of Sirius' grinning face.

"The fact that you think by torturing me that you will make me think that I am _worthless. _You think, the thick, narrow-minded arses that you are, that you can make me believe this. Well, let me have you know that I'm not as pliable as Regulus. I actually have _compassion _for other people's feelings, and that's not something you taught me – it's something I've learned through interacting with others, that I don't _want _to hate the rest of the world and think that I'm better than them. Unfortunately, you're too set in your ancient, prejudiced ways that you can't change and see how utterly horrible and just plain repulsive you are," Sirius said to them, almost laughing as he said it. The dam was finally unleashed and he wasn't going to stop, no matter how much they beat or bruised him. They were only skin deep – they couldn't damage his thoughts, feeling and opinions.

Walburga swelled in anger to a sadistic purple colour, her eyes bulging in such a way that Sirius could only find in comical to watch. She stepped forward to strike him, but Orion held out his arm to stop her.

"Leave him to me," he said, his voice barely louder than a whisper but the most intelligible thing in the room. He advanced slowly towards his chuckling son, who was still lying on the floor. Sirius glanced over his father's approaching shoulder and saw his brother, cowering in the corner of the room, _frightened _of what their father was doing to them. Sirius shook his head sadly. Regulus could feel remorse and compassion – but his facade was too highly guarded to let him appear otherwise.

"Stop!" Regulus begged as Orion lifted his foot and held it above Sirius.

"Not now, Regulus..." Walburga reminded him warningly as she watched intently the scene before her unfold, almost as if it was happening in another world and she was an outsider.

_Crunch_. The sound of foot meeting bone was instantly apparent and it had been an undoubtedly forceful action as Sirius' nose began to bleed where his father had stamped on him. Yet, he continued to smile, knowing that he could get through it. This irritated Orion more, who continued to kick his son on the floor, his eyes flashing murderously.

Regulus stood in the corner, practically limp in shock. His brother's punishments had never been this bad, this _aggressive_. If his father didn't stop, Sirius would die. And he would have stood at the edge of the room, _watching_.

He felt physically sick at the thought, and ran into the bathroom to steady himself – but even shutting the primordial oak door couldn't block out the sickening sound of foot meeting bone. It revolted him.

Sirius lay there, letting his father do what he wanted. He saw his brother run, and inside knew that Regulus wasn't cut out to be a Death Eater. Their cousin Bellatrix was plain psychotic, but Regulus wasn't. He still had that ounce of humanity in him that firmly attached him to the rest of the world, something the rest of the Death Eaters didn't have.

"You are no son of mine," Orion finally spat into his son's face, and fled the room, his wife obediently following him.

"Like I would ever want to be part of your sick family," Sirius called after them. This time they chose to ignore, except they slammed his bedroom door behind them, leaving Sirius alone.

Sirius was weak – but he wasn't that weak; he could still probably put a few things in a bag and get on his broom. That would be enough for him to run away, or rather, fly away.

That was what he decided to do – he pulled out a bag from underneath his bed and into it shoved some of his choicest possessions: the Marauder's Map, some jeans, a t-shirt with his favourite band, The Who, emblazoned across the chest, a few of the many letters that littered every single surface in his room and a couple of photos. As he haphazardly folded the letters and put them into the front pocket of the bag, lines of the different people's handwriting caught his eye... James' writing, so hurried and scribbled, barely legible, yet he had learned over the years to read it... Remus', neat and precise, every letter of undeniably equal size, a sign of his perfectionist tendencies... Peter's, large and almost childlike, disjoined and printed... even Lily's jumped out at him, slanted and feminine. He left behind all the letters sent to him by his many fan girls (not that he didn't enjoy reading them from time to time, or receiving them for that matter, as over the holidays he got them by the bucket load, but they weren't important enough to take with him) and slowly leaned under his bed, ignoring the stinging pain of his most probably broken nose and bruised body, and took out his broom. His absolute pride and joy.

He slung the bag over the broom and tied a knot in the handle so it wouldn't fall off, and climbed onto it, facing the large window that took up most of one wall and looked out onto the cobbled street below and the small park across the street where children happily played with their friends and families.

"_Bombarda Maxima_!" he yelled with his wand pointed ominously in front of him, and the window instantaneously smashed. He kicked off from the ground, and zoomed out of his bedroom window and high into the open early evening sky over London.

*

Sirius was beginning to feel excruciatingly tired and frail; he was no longer sitting proudly upright on his broomstick, ignoring the pain felt in every square inch of his body, rejoicing in the fact he had just broke out of his depressing and unloving home and thrilled to be running away. Now he was leaning on it for support, his eyelids drooping, threatening portentously to close. He was fighting a losing battle with his body, that just wanted to sleep, but he spurred himself on.

The hustle and bustle of London had ended a long time ago and he had been soaring above rolling hills and fields and small villages for hours; he could smell salt in the air, as if he was near the sea. He knew this meant he was near James' house, as James lived about five miles from a beach. The beach James' house was near had a lighthouse, so as he skimmed the top of the water, the air around him completely silent, he drank in the refreshing atmosphere as he sought out the lighthouse.

After what seemed like hours afterwards, but really was only about half an hour, he spotted the lighthouse and the beach he knew to be the one that was the classic Marauder hangout when they were all at James'. It was beside a little seaside town, and he flew west of the town for a little while, knowing that he was extremely close to his destination.

As soon as the familiar house came into view, Sirius cried with joy. He was so exhausted by the flight and by the anger he had been subjected to earlier that he let his guard down and allowed himself to fall asleep, resulting in him crash landing at the front of James' house, about two feet from the doorstep.

And that was how, at one minute past midnight on the twenty-fifth of August, Sirius Black collapsed on the Potters' doorstep.

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So Emmy and Caitlin and Sirius and James will meet next chapter! Thank you so much for reading, I hope you have a fab weekend and please leave a review to tell me what you think and if you know the song artists! Please spread the word about my story and I hope you like it :) Love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	5. Sanctuary

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: Thank you Squid7000, Ash Blue, sarlovesoccer, sovereignty'd and DSS Special Agent for reviewing (thanks for those who reviewed multiple times!!!); thank you to Norahxxxx, Squid7000 and Bathsheaba for adding my story to your favourites and thank you to sovereignty'd for adding my story to your alerts!!

Ooh - people who correctly guessed the song for the last chapter were Squid7000 and DSS Special Agent - I'm a Cat Stevens fan! And also Squid7000 got the first chapter, which was ABBA! Chapter 2, "If You Want Blood You Got It" was AC/DC and Chapter 3, "Please Don't Leave Me" was by John Sykes - an absolutely phenomenal guitarist!!

Enjoy the chapter!!!! :)

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**Chapter Five**

_**Sanctuary**_

A crash behind the two girls and the burly Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt alerted them to the sudden presence of another. Caitlin whimpered in fright and Kingsley span around in a split second, his wand at the ready. To his surprise, Emmy stepped out from behind him, her wand drawn as well, her face illuminated by the moon in an eerie light.

"Stay behind me," Kingsley ordered and slowly advanced forward towards the collapsed figure a couple of steps away from them. He was face down on the gravel – it was obviously a male. He was incredibly tall, perhaps even taller than Kingsley, who gave the illusion of being gigantic with his broad shoulders, and was wearing jeans and a t-shirt – though even Caitlin could see from the shadows on the doorstep that they were stained with blood. Underneath him lay a broomstick with a bag attacked to the handle.

Kingsley reached out his hand and carefully lifted the person's head. Caitlin couldn't see properly from the doorstep, her vision obscured by the low light and Kingsley – but she could see that he had long curly dark hair that reached his shoulders.

Emmy, however, had pushed Kingsley aside and was attempting to lift up the boy – his face, though disfigured with what looked like a broken nose, was unquestionably boyish, and she could tell that, when not a bleeding, wounded mess, he was a good-looking boy, with pale alabaster skin and aristocratic cheek bones.

"Hello?" she whispered softly into his ear as she managed to lift him up slightly. He groggily murmured something inaudible back to her and she softly smiled. He lifted himself up and leaned on her shoulder.

"He's badly hurt," she informed Kingsley, who nodded and ushered them towards the door.

"Caitlin – I mean, Miss Piper – knock the door, Charlus and Dorea are waiting for you," he said. Caitlin obliged and rapped on the door with the brass knocker, breathing quickly and clutching Tom's t-shirt, which was so big on her it reached her knees, for comfort. It covered the teal bikini she was still wearing – though sunbathing in the back garden felt like a lifetime ago.

Barely seconds after Caitlin had knocked on the door, it was flung open by a woman who looked to be in her mid- to late-forties, with a kind looking face and sparkling eyes, who was about the same height as Caitlin.

"Sorry we're so late Dorea..." Kingsley rapidly apologised as she ushered them in. "And we found an extra one in the garden, who crash-landed not seconds ago."

Dorea Potter took a quick glance at the boy soaked with his own blood leaning on Emmy's shoulder, his eyelids fluttering as if he was somewhere between being asleep and wide awake. She looked away as if to welcome the girls into a room at the end of the hallway – which Caitlin observed was rather large and grand, with a staircase sweeping around the edge of it through the ceiling – when something clicked and she inspected the boy's face closer. Her face turned into one of pure horror.

"Sirius?" she gasped, and the boy's eyes opened and looked at her.

"Dorea..." he said cheerfully, extending his arms to embrace her, but taking his arm off of Emmy's shoulder considerably weakened him and he fell forward into her.

"Kingsley, could you please lie him down on the settee in there, and call Charlie?" Dorea requested of him. "After all, he is a Healer," she added as an afterthought. She turned back to Emmy and Caitlin, who hadn't yet spoken. "Girls, would you like to come through to the kitchen? Perhaps you'd like something to drink, as I gather you've had a very long and exhausting day."

Both girls nodded and followed Dorea into a large, country-style kitchen and sat themselves down around a large wooden table. Dorea took the seat beside Emmy and quickly summoned the glasses and some bottles of Butterbeer from the fridge and began to pass them out.

"Girls – I'm so sorry about what happened this afternoon," she said sympathetically, a tear falling from her eye. Emmy decided she liked this woman as she sipped her Butterbeer; she seemed genuinely sorry, not just flippant about it. "Caitlin," she continued, turning to the girl whose beatific face was tear stained, "I knew your parents extremely well. Emmy – it is Emmy, isn't it? I remember your mother saying you wouldn't respond to Emmanuelle when I last spoke to her – we knew your parents too. At school, when we were at Hogwarts, in the prehistoric times," she said, and both girls smiled pleasantly at her, "both of your mums and I went around together. We were the Gryffindor girls – Gemma, Callie and Dorea – and we did everything to keep out of the way of the boys, namely Charlus, or rather, as you'll probably find, Charlie, Dan and Steve. We ended up married to the three boys!" she finished reminiscently.

"Mrs Potter–" Emmy began, putting down her Butterbeer bottle for a moment.

"Call me Dorea, dear," she interjected warmly.

"Dorea, did you talk to my mum, I mean, Callie, quite a lot up until she died?" she asked timidly.

"I did, yes," Dorea answered. "She was a lot like you. Same honey-coloured hair and enigmatic violet eyes. Even down to the name-shortening – Callie refused to be called Calpurnia, her full name, which is what your dad, Dan, did a lot. I think it was one of those things that helped her fall in love with him."

Emmy smiled.

"Are you an Auror too?" Caitlin questioned in a voice barely above a whisper, but Dorea answered her too in the same warm and inviting voice she had done with Emmy.

"No, dear, I used to be a Mediwitch on the wards of St Mungo's, the magical catastrophe hospital in London," Dorea said, "up until about a decade ago. Then I became a house witch, but Charlie, my husband, is a Healer. He's tending to the boy you found outside's wounds."

"Who is he?" Emmy quizzed, finishing off her Butterbeer.

"His name is Sirius, Sirius Black. He's my son James' best friend – you'll meet James in the morning, as I think you'll need to go to Diagon Alley to get some clothes. James is probably with Sirius now, but they are both going to be under strict instructions not to disturb you tonight, as I think you both need some rest."

"Will he be okay?" Emmy persisted.

"He'll be fine – Charlie will fix him up and then all he'll need is a good night's sleep and he'll be right as rain. Would you like to come and see your bedrooms girls? I promise that in a few days you can redecorate them to how you'd like seeing as they are your bedrooms now," Dorea said kindly, leading them back into the hallway and past the room Sirius was in. Emmy strained her eyes to peer through the gap in the door, and she met a pair of stormy grey eyes that seemed to connect with her distinctive violet ones, but she quickly looked away and scampered up the stairs behind Dorea.

Dorea showed both girls to rooms next door to each other on the second floor of the house – they were opposite James' room and the room which it looked like was soon to become Sirius' permanent home. Emmy's was painted a sunny yellow, with oak furniture placed here and there. There was a large double bed, a huge chest at the bottom of it, a wardrobe and a dressing table and stool. There were daisy cushions and accessories everywhere and paintings of rural scenes up on the walls. Caitlin's was similar, with the same oak furniture, but her room was painted petal pink with rose accessories everywhere and some paintings of flowers on the walls. The rooms suited the girls perfectly, and they even had a door in between them, which they left open that night in case they couldn't sleep.

Downstairs, Charlus, or rather, Charlie, Potter was tending to Sirius' wounds. He was patching them up with Essence of Dittany and a few basic healing spells. He fixed the broken nose and got rid of all the dried blood, and gave him a potion to drink so that he could regain his strength.

Suddenly, the door to the living room burst open and in came Charlie's own son, sixteen-year-old James Potter, his jet black hair as untidy as ever and his hazel eyes concerned.

"Mum told me Sirius was down here all bloodied up!" James gabbled, jumping down beside his best friend to try and examine what was wrong.

"He'll be fine, just let the poor boy rest," Charlie assured him. "Anyway, what are you doing wandering about the house just wearing pyjama bottoms? Didn't we tell you we were having two new additions to the family in the form of two teenage girls, one of whom has just lost her parents and the other who had lost both her aunt and uncle?"

"Hey, I'm not wearing _just_ pyjamas, I've got boxers on underneath!" James protested.

"Thanks for that, son," Charlie laughed to himself as James began to look at Sirius quizzically, raising his eyebrows as he saw the faint scars littering his friend's face and arms.

"He looks worse than a bad full moon..." James muttered concernedly.

"Sorry James, what was that?" Charlie asked, getting a blanket out of the cupboard.

"Ah, nothing..." he said innocently, averting his gaze to the lamp in the corner. "Doesn't the lamp, er, look bright today?"

"The lamp is switched _off_, James – I do worry about you sometimes," Charlie said, ruffling his son's hair as he put the blanket down over Sirius, who was now fast asleep.

"Can I stay down here? To monitor his condition?" James pleaded, lying himself down in a star shape on the rug.

"I suppose so, but don't poke, prod or jump on him–"

"Would I ever?" James grinned roguishly.

"Of course not, that's why you're not going to do it. Don't wake him up just because you're bored and don't be noisy if you go back up to your room as Emmy and Caitlin have gone to bed and will probably be sleeping in quite late, they'll be exhausted after everything today. So will Sirius, so leave him alone. If he doesn't want to get up, he doesn't have to, okay?" Charlie said, reeling off instructions.

"Alright," James sighed, rolling onto his front.

"Oh, and James?" Charlie abruptly remembered as he walked towards the door.

"Uh-huh?" James replied, doing his rather bad Elvis Presley impression.

"Go find a shirt before you come in for breakfast tomorrow morning," Charlie finished. "Night son."

"Night dad!" James called after him, and, turning over, he fell fast asleep.

*

It turned out Caitlin and Emmy didn't have to worry about not being able to sleep – both slept like logs, dreaming.

Caitlin dreamt that she lived in a tower in a castle, and every day, at dawn, noon and night, a snowy white owl came and delivered her a letter. Every letter that was delivered every day had the same message written on it: "All my love, Tom."

Sirius, downstairs, dreamt of a really nice Caribbean island that he was lying on the beach of, sipping pumpkin juice, and waitresses in flowery bikinis were bringing him food. Then he went on a motorbike and rode it into the sea and amazingly it floated so he was revving it up in the ocean with one of the bikini-clad waitresses sat on the back of it feeding him grapes.

Emmy dreamt that she was running. She didn't know where to, or what from, but it was along this path. There was nothing either side of the path, nothing behind or in front, but she kept looking behind, as if she imagined being followed. It was slightly disconcerting, and she woke up unexpectedly at about half past nine the following morning. She was never one to stay in bed just lounging around in the morning, so she got up and found that she had gone to bed in some different clothes to the ones she had been wearing the day before – the vest top and shorts that had specks of soil and grass stains on them from when she had been crawling through the flower bed to avoid being hit by Tom's apple missiles. She assumed the red sheep pyjamas she was wearing were Dorea's – they were comfy, a t-shirt and long bottoms. It felt like she was a new person now, she was even wearing different clothes, the clothes of a completely different girl named Emmy. So much had happened since yesterday afternoon, when she first saw that sight through the window. So much had changed.

Dorea had said that if either of them wanted her during the night, they could come to their bedroom and wake her up, and as soon as they did wake up in the morning, they could come down for breakfast if they wanted, or stay in bed for a while.

Emmy decided to go downstairs, seeing as it was quite late. She noticed Dorea's son James' door was open and his bedroom was empty – she wondered if those grey eyes she had caught last night as she walked past the living room were his.

She tiptoed down the stairs quietly and when she got downstairs, she heard Dorea in the kitchen, sounding as if she was cooking something, and a male voice who she presumed to be her husband Charlie. But, before she imposed herself upon them, she wanted to see if the boy she had helped in last night was okay – Sirius, she thought his name was. She remembered that they had put him in the living room and recognised which door it was. She slowly pushed it open, to see that the room was dark. It took her eyes a while to adjust to the low light levels, and when they did – she squealed in shock.

On the floor lay a topless boy, completely different to the boy named Sirius, who was lying on the sofa asleep; the boy was wearing only checked pyjama bottoms, with messy dark hair and a muscular torso – lying straight with his arms crossed across his chest like a mummy.

"What's wrong?" Dorea asked, suddenly appearing behind her. Emmy pointed at James – and then started to laugh as he blearily awoke and rubbed his eyes. He opened them to see his mum and dad with a girl he had never met before standing by the door.

"Good morning," he greeted them cheerfully, sitting up.

"James – what did I tell you about putting a shirt on? You don't want to frighten poor Emmy to death!" his father said despairingly.

"So you're Emmy?" James asked in his best polite voice, to make up for the fact he was sat in front of a girl he had never met before without a shirt on.

"Yes – I'm guessing you're James?" she smiled friendlily.

"Yep – and this boy here, who is sound asleep and probably will be for the next billion years as that is how long it takes him to wake up, is Sirius," James introduced her to sleeping mass of a best friend, who had his back to all of them. Emmy was intrigued to see what Sirius looked like, as even when he was covered in blood, scratches and bruises, he promised godlike looks.

"Great," Emmy said.

"Does anybody want any breakfast?" Dorea asked, and James' eyes – and Emmy's – lit up at the mention of food.

"I take it that's a yes then!" Charlie guffawed, standing aside to let the two teenagers follow Dorea to the kitchen. They sat at the table – James sliding into the seat opposite Emmy and grabbing the jug of juice childishly, pouring himself a glass, and then, upon further consideration, poured Emmy a glass too.

"Thanks," she said appreciatively, wrapping her fingers around it and sipping the juice slowly, in contrast to James' method of drinking it, which was gulping it right down in one go.

"James, table manners, please!" Dorea said, amused.

"Sorry Mum," he apologised, giving her a winning smile.

"James, didn't I tell you to put a shirt on?" Charlie grinned audaciously, winking at Emmy.

"Sorry Dad, I didn't have chance between getting up off the floor in the living room about thirty seconds ago and coming to get my breakfast now," he apologised again, and began starting to carve his name in the top of the butter with a knife.

"And stop carving your name in the butter, you do it all the time!" said a different voice, approaching from the hall. In walked Sirius Black, looking happy and healthy, beaming at everybody present.

"Is it Pick-On-James-Day or something? Oh, Padfoot!" James exclaimed in excitement, throwing his arms around his slightly disturbed best friend.

"Are you feeling better now, Sirius?" Charlie asked in concern, and he nodded, but was still being subjected to one of James' super tight hugs that practically squeezed all the air out of people.

"James, you might want to let go otherwise he'll suffocate!" Dorea told him before bringing a plate piled high with freshly cooked pancakes in the middle of the table. "Enjoy!"

James leaped back into his seat in a manner reminiscent of a kangaroo, Emmy observed, and Sirius rapidly pulled back the chair next to his best friend and began putting pancakes onto his own plate, covering them with chocolate spread.

"Sirius, this is Emmy, Emmy Piper," Dorea introduced them. Sirius looked up to see a honey-blonde-haired, violet-eyed, pale-skinned and beautiful-faced girl sat in front of him, offering a small smile.

"Hi, I'm Sirius, Sirius Black," he said warmly.

Emmy quickly recognised the intensely stormy grey eyes that had bonded with hers last night as she walked past the living room when the door had been ajar. Sirius recognised her violet eyes perfectly – he scrutinized them closely over his pancakes surreptitiously and saw that they weren't _just _violet; they were a myriad of colours, as they were flecked with sapphire blue, emerald green and chocolate brown. They were the most enchanting eyes he had ever seen, even before Lily Evans' distinctly emerald eyes – whose eyes he had only noticed because James incessantly went on about them.

"Hang on..." Sirius said after a few minutes of comfortable silence. "Didn't you help me inside last night? When I, um, crash landed in the garden..."

"Yes, yes I did," Emmy replied, smiling at him graciously, "are you okay now? You seemed pretty bad, I was really kind of worried..."

"I'm fine – you were worried?" Sirius asked. Emmy nodded timidly, wondering whether she had said the wrong thing. Her suspicions were quickly quashed, however, when his face broke out into a huge smile.

"Sirius – we just wanted to say that the room next to James' is yours, forever. During the holidays, you live with us. This is your home now," Dorea said firmly.

"Oh my Merlin – you really mean it? I couldn't possibly – I'll have to go back to–"

"No, Sirius, you are _never _going back there. Do you hear me? I'm not having you treated like that. Besides, you spend so much of your time here anyway, you are like my second son."

"Obviously he doesn't beat me though!" James inputted self-importantly, then he, Sirius and Emmy looked at each other and burst out laughing. They continued laughing into their pancakes until somebody else appeared at the door. As soon as Emmy saw who it was, she jumped up and rushed forward. Sirius noticed that she was quite tall and had a nicely curvy figure.

"Caitlin, are you okay, did you sleep well?" she gushed, hugging her cousin tightly. Caitlin gave her a weak smile and nodded.

Both boys practically had their eyes popping out of their skulls at the sight of the girl in front of them – she was about two inches shorter than Emmy, with dark hair that fell in curls to her shoulders. She was very curvy with tanned skin and eyes of a deep olive green. Even dressed in Dorea's purple flowery pyjamas, she looked like a goddess.

"Morning Caitlin, would you like some pancakes?" Dorea offered softly. Caitlin shook her head, and turned to look at the two boys who were both staring at her intensely.

"This is–" Emmy began by way of an introduction, but was interrupted by both boys scraping their chairs back and extending their hands for her to shake. She rolled her eyes at their reaction to her stunning cousin's appearance.

"Sirius Black," Sirius said in a suave, deep, silky voice, smiling at Caitlin enticingly.

"James Potter," James said, shoving Sirius out of the way and grasping Caitlin's hand keenly. She smiled in confusion and sat down at the table opposite Sirius, next to Emmy.

"Nice to meet you both," she said slowly.

"Girls – and you two, probably," Dorea said, looking at James and Sirius, who were looking at her avidly with wide eyes, and she couldn't help but laugh at them before continuing. "You'll probably want to stock up your wardrobes and drawers with clothes and shoes – girls you are the priority with this because James had loads of clothes and Sirius left half of his here last time," she grinned.

"But I want to look all fashionable!" James protested. "My clothes are _so _last season!"

"Yeah right," Sirius scoffed humorously.

"So do you four want to go into Diagon Alley today to buy some clothes and things? Girls, buy what you want," Dorea insisted.

"We couldn't possibly," Emmy said in protestation, but Dorea silenced her.

"I'm not having you here without what you want, it's your home now. There are a couple of new shops in Diagon Alley but you might want to go into Muggle London and maybe do some shopping there as well – but girls, can you keep an eye on these two as they have been known to cause quite a stir in a coffee shop called Starbacks or something–"

"Starbucks," James corrected his mother, grinning impishly.

"_Starbucks _when they ask for pumpkin juice, Butterbeer, Firewhisky and gillywater," Dorea finished.

"Are you sure?" Emmy asked.

"Positive – now, do you want to borrow some of my clothes just to go in and then you can have whatever clothes you want to wear after that?" Dorea suggested, taking the girls upstairs with her to change, leaving the boys and her husband behind.

"I'm going to go to St Mungo's, okay, boys, so behave – you don't want to scare the two girls," he winked as he wandered out of the kitchen door and they heard the faint pop of him apparating on the patio outside.

"They are both seriously pretty," Sirius said in the most sincere voice he had ever used.

"Ha! Seriously – _Sirius_!" James began to laugh, and Sirius joined in with him, laughing at the age-old pun they had rejoiced in ever since meeting each other on the Hogwarts Express aged eleven.

"Emmy seems really nice too," Sirius said.

"She must have been to want to help you in!" James joked. Sirius grinned. Then James' face dropped. "I've been betraying Lily! _She is going to hate me_! I swore faithfully to her, Marauder's honour, in first year that I would never look at another girl!"

"I don't think that really matters to be honest," Sirius said as James scrabbled around for a piece of parchment, a quill and some ink so that he could write a letter of apology to Lily. Sirius shook his head exasperatedly and then helped himself to the last three pancakes.

_

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_

I hope you liked it! This chapter was named after a song by Gabriella and was used on the St Trinian's soundtrack :) Thanks for reading, PLEASE review and have an amazing week. Love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	6. Sensible Is Not In Their Dictionary

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: Wow, I had loads of review for the last chapter! Thank you to sovereignty'd, fanny-kun, Squid7000, spannieren, sarlovesoccer, MaxRideRox, Bramble Icedancer, Ash Blue and Stephanie Cat-Kat for reviewing; thank you to MaxRideRox for adding my story to your favourites and thank you to MaxRideRox, eskiimo drumbeats and sovereignty'd for adding my story to your alerts! I'm afraid this chapter isn't named after a song, but future ones will be :) I hope you like it, please review!

Ooh, and please vote in my poll as I'll be closing it on Wednesday!

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**Chapter Six**

_**Sensible Is Not In The Marauders' Dictionary**_

Dorea had dug out her old clothes from when she was a teenager, which Caitlin was rejoicing over, eulogising profusely Dorea's fashion tastes as she pored over glamorous pencil skirts with high waists and floaty shirts. She eagerly picked out, with Dorea's consent, a turquoise blue pencil skirt and a white short-sleeved shirt that she left slightly undone at the top with some beads. Dorea also sneakily shortened the skirt as it was really long on Caitlin, so that it now reached about an inch above her knee.

Emmy, on the other hand, was finding it difficult to locate something that would fit her as she was a considerable amount taller than both Dorea and Caitlin. Dorea instead got out her clothes from the early sixties and found Caitlin some cropped trousers, a red off-the-shoulder top and a paisley print scarf to tie around her neck. Caitlin gripped up her hair in a messy bun but Emmy ran her fingers through hers, leaving it down and natural, cascading down her shoulders and back in honey waves.

"Do you want us to come with you? Would you feel safer?" Dorea asked quietly as they walked back down the stairs.

"We'll be fine," they assured her and walked to the fireplace in the living room, where James and Sirius were standing, dressed in jeans, t-shirts and Converse, which Emmy looked at longingly. Caitlin was still quiet – Emmy presumed it was her way of dealing with her grief. Normally she was effervescent, flirtatious and garrulous, but today she was silent and reserved. Although Emmy often complained about the way her vivacious cousin conducted herself, she was quite sure she preferred her that way.

James picked a large vase off the mantelpiece and held it out to the three other teenagers present. They all took a handful of what looked to be dust inside – but was actually Floo Powder.

"I'll go first, then you can come, Caitlin, then Emmy, and then Sirius at the end, is that alright?" James suggested. Everyone seemed to agree and James boldly stepped into the fireplace – but as soon as he spoke, clearly and articulately, stating his destination ("Diagon Alley!"), Caitlin turned to Emmy, a look of panic on her pretty face.

"Emmy – I don't think I can do this," she whispered anxiously.

"Sure you can!" Emmy attempted to comfort her.

"I think I need to stay inside. I just – don't know if I'd feel safe. I want to stay," she persisted.

"Caitlin, are you sure?" Sirius asked her. "Do you want somebody to stay with you?"

"It's fine," she replied thankfully, "Dorea is still here. I want to write to Tom, anyway, and – I just think I need to be alone, after everything that happened yesterday."

"Caitlin, are you absolutely _positive _you don't want me to stay with you?" Emmy begged her earnestly, clutching her cousin's hands tightly.

"Emmy, I'll be fine, I just want to write to Tom," Caitlin assured her.

"Don't be afraid to send anyone to come and get me if you need me," Emmy murmured into her cousin's ear as she gave her a quick hug. She stepped inside the fireplace, stated her destination and whirled off in an emerald fire.

"Caitlin, look after yourself," Sirius said comfortingly, following Emmy into the fireplace and twisting off towards Diagon Alley. Caitlin smiled to herself and tottered off to the kitchen, informing Dorea she was still there, before going upstairs to write a letter to Tom.

The boy she felt a strange and sudden connection to.

*

The first question that was asked when the three teenagers found themselves standing in the bar of the Leaky Cauldron was from James, who worriedly enquired as to where Caitlin was. Emmy quickly replied, ensuring him that her cousin was okay but wanted some alone time to write to Tom.

The second question asked alluded to who the bloody hell – Sirius' words – Tom was. Emmy answered this too, informing them that Tom Morgan was their next door neighbour back in Albania.

The third question, that was asked whilst they strolled through the bar to the back of the seemingly dingy pub where the bins were, regarded Tom's relationship with Caitlin.

"Is he her boyfriend or something?" James asked interestedly, pulling his wand out of his pocket and tapping particular bricks in a uniform sequence that he performed naturally.

"No – he's a real womaniser and practically stalked her. His family have a tree that overlooks our garden and he used to hide in it, watching her sunbathe," Emmy replied, a smile etched onto her pretty features.

"Sounds like somebody _I _know," James grinned, elbowing Sirius pointedly, who beamed at them.

"Why's she writing to him if he stalked her?" Sirius questioned.

"Well yesterday, we were sat in the garden and he was sat in his tree and when the– _it _happened, when we were told to run, he helped us, he took us and hid us in the forest in his tree house. He also said–" Emmy explained, but stopped abruptly, realising she'd said slightly too much considering she'd only really known these boys for a couple of hours. Contrary to literal time, she felt like she'd known them her whole life and liked them both immensely.

"He said what?" Sirius asked gently, softly touching Emmy's arm soothingly as they stepped through the archway that had magically appeared in front of them as the entrance to Diagon Alley.

"He said – 'The ones that love us never _really _leave us'," Emmy quoted. "Which, I think, helped both me and Caitlin a lot. Seeing as my parents died when I was five, and I've lived with my aunt and uncle since then, it's kind of put things into perspective for me. Made me realise that I shouldn't be afraid of the world as there will always be someone watching over me."

"Wow," Sirius responded, utterly stunned. "That was _beautiful_."

Emmy blushed.

"No, seriously," he assured her, "I've never heard anything so beautiful and heartfelt in my life."

"Thanks," she said, flushing further as the two boys led her into the alley.

"It's even better than I remembered," she breathed dreamily as she took in everything around her. The sights, sounds, colours and smells drew her in, romancing her with the sheer immensity of the alley.

"We'll go clothes shopping first," James promised as he and Sirius moved to flank Emmy, so she stood in the middle, feeling slightly dwarfed by the two extraordinarily tall and good-looking boys, but also safe. "Could we perhaps stop at Quality Quidditch Supplies later, though? After we've got you some clothes, and some for Caitlin, too?"

"Quality Quidditch Supplies? Can we go now?" Emmy pleaded, her mesmeric violet eyes brightening at the thought of it.

"You like Quidditch?" James asked incredulously. Emmy nodded enthusiastically.

"You know, Prongs, I like this girl more and more by the second," Sirius grinned happily.

"My sentiments exactly, Padfoot," James laughed as Sirius threw his arm around Emmy's shoulder appreciatively.

"What are Padfoot and Prongs? I mean, obviously they're _nicknames_, but what do they originate from?" Emmy asked inquisitively, quite enjoying the feeling of having Sirius' arm around her.

James and Sirius exchanged quick, nervous glances.

"Ah, after our Patronuses!" Sirius explained, which was partly truthful.

"So what are your Patronuses then? I'm guessing, James, that yours is a stag?" she asked and he nodded proudly.

"Mine's a dog," Sirius told her.

"Wow – that's amazing! Your name literally means 'Black Dog' as well, that's so, so unbelievably cool," Emmy praised them. "Ever heard the Led Zeppelin song of the same name?"

"I think I've just died and gone to heaven! She likes _Led Zep_!" Sirius babbled, hugging Emmy tightly. She earned a jealous look off a passing girl who looked about fourteen and was carrying a large pile of books.

"Um – why did that girl just give me evils?" she asked in perplexity.

"It's because Paddy here is the equivalent of Robert Redford or David Essex at Hogwarts – meaning every girl finds him gut-wrenchingly attractive," James filled her in.

"'Gut-wrenchingly attractive'?" Emmy giggled. "Doesn't paint a pretty picture..."

"No, it doesn't, does it?" Sirius said thoughtfully as the three teenagers stopped in front of the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies.

After a half an hour perusal of the shelves (during which time they bumped into several players on the Hogwarts Quidditch teams and introduced them to Emmy) they dragged themselves the way and in the direction of the new section of the alley which contained clothes shops that Dorea had been referring to.

They stopped abruptly outside the first clothing shop which was, rather unimaginatively named, Calliope's Couture Clothes.

"Can we actually _handle _going in there?" James asked uncertainly as they peered through the door.

"The clothes look nice and Caitlin would like them," Emmy reasoned, pushing open the shop door, so the two boys had no choice but to follow her.

They entered the shop, which was painted raspberry pink and had monochrome damasked wallpaper on one wall. Big silver rails were dotted around the shop, exhibiting clothes that were what Emmy would call high fashion and what Sirius and James would call fussy fluffy things.

"This is nice," Emmy remarked, picking up a purple prom-style dress with a large bow around the waist.

"Because you could _so _wear that every day," Sirius grinned, leaning against the wall uninterestedly.

"For a party or something!" Emmy protested, picking out her size and determinedly handing it to James for carry.

"So I'm the coat hanger now?" he asked and Emmy nodded mischievously, heading for a rack filled with jeans.

After she had selected two pairs of jeans, one black with tiny studs on the back and front pockets and one grey-blue with big flares at the bottom ("For Caitlin,"), a t-shirt and a long scarlet cardigan, they went to the till and paid. For James and Sirius, this couldn't have come sooner. Emmy was a lovely person and interesting and they enjoyed talking to her, but they didn't enjoy the whole shopping part. It was rather tedious watching her pick out clothes and ask the two boys to carry them for her.

Sirius decided that the shopping experience would need livening up slightly – especially when they ventured out into Muggle London. The prospect of the things they could do for laughs out there was beckoning invitingly.

"How many more clothes shops are there in the alley?" Emmy inquired as Sirius lazily slung his arm back around her shoulder as if it was a natural thing to do. James stood by her other side as if they were her two bodyguards and peered down the rest of Diagon Alley.

"About three? One of them is an underwear shop, though..." he said, and whilst his cheeks tinged pink slightly, a wicked grin formed on Sirius' handsome face.

Emmy determinedly led them into the next clothes shop and bought some long vest tops, a coral-coloured jumper and a grey skirt.

The next clothes shop along the alley was the aforementioned underwear shop, which Sirius dragged them in.

"Uh, Pads, why are you so determined to come in here?" James asked apprehensively, questioning his best friend's mental state at that moment in time.

"Well, Prongs, do you want me to go without a sufficient supply of pants for the rest of the year?" he asked, holding up his hands in defence as he headed towards a brightly-coloured display of boxer shorts at the back of the shorts.

"Hey, Emmy!" Sirius called after her, grinning maniacally. She felt slightly worried – and had ever right to be as she watched him pick up an _extremely _large bra from a nearby sales rack and glanced at it in amusement. "This is big enough to be a _hat_!" And, feeling the need to demonstrate this wildly imaginative theory, he placed it on his head and smiled charmingly.

"Are they warm?" James commented, joining his friend with a large bra on his head.

"I'm thinking you should take them off..." Emmy suggested, but to no avail.

"This isn't your size is it?" Sirius asked suspiciously. Emmy shook her head fervently.

"I am not _that _well-endowed," she smiled, leaving them to it.

Emmy disappeared off to the opposite side of the shop but could hear Sirius and James' vociferous musings quite clearly at the other side of the shop and stifled giggles as she went and bought herself some things.

When she had a paper bag with her stuff inside, she rejoined the two boys, who were squabbling over something.

"Uh – what's the matter?" she asked hesitantly, and the two boys turned to look at her, and she noticed the pair of boxers they seemed to be fighting over.

"Why are you bickering over a pair of _pants_?" she questioned incredulously, fighting laughter at the resolute expressions on both boys' faces.

"Ah, Emmy, that is where you are wrong," James sombrely informed her.

"These are not just a pair of pants, no, not at all," Sirius said, shaking his head so vigorously Emmy was expecting it to fly off.

"These are legendary pants," James finished. Emmy looked at them – they were bright red and patterned with cartoon Quidditch players flying after snitches, quaffles and brandishing beater's bats.

"Can't you both just buy a pair?" she suggested rationally.

"No! There's only one pair left!" Sirius explained the problem.

"Well either one of you buys them or neither of you do," she replied, leaning against a rail of pyjamas.

"But I want them..." they chorused sadly. Emmy burst out laughing at the spectacle in front of her.

"I have an idea!" James suddenly said, in a voice that was as important as if he had just discovered the meaning of life.

"What?" his best friend questioned eagerly.

"How about – we both pay half and wear them on alternate days?" he elucidated – and Sirius grinned as Emmy frowned in disgust.

"Deal!" Sirius agreed ardently and they bounded over to the counter to buy them.

"That is _revolting_," Emmy told them as they reappeared at her side, Sirius holding a paper bag containing the pair of pants they had just been fighting over.

"We're going to wash them in between!" James defended them and she shook her head as they left the shop.

The final clothes shop on Diagon Alley was a very stylish shop that Emmy felt Caitlin would have been more at home in than she. So, being a loyal and dutiful cousin, she went inside and picked out a few things for her, including a couple of skirts, t-shirts, a leather-look jacket and a pair of Mary Jane style shoes in a pale pink colour.

After they had paid, Sirius begged them if they could go out into Muggle London now. They agreed and wandered through the Leaky Cauldron into the outside world.

"You do know that the Leaky Cauldron is quite a way from the main shopping areas in London?" Emmy pointed out.

"So, we can walk!" Sirius said nonchalantly.

"Not for miles and miles, we can't," she protested, "we'll have to take the Underground."

"How do you know about the Underground?" James asked.

"My uncle told me about it," she shrugged.

"I've been on it before," James replied, "I know how to use it."

All Sirius said was, "What the _hell _is the Underground?" which earned him a few strange looks from passersby, though one of them was quickly swapped for a look of admiration as she took in Sirius' striking form.

Emmy and James exchanged amused glances as they dragged Sirius off in the direction of the nearest tube station.

*

"Wow," Sirius grinned as they stepped off the tube at the Oxford Street station, "let's do that _again_!"

"Calm down Paddy," James said as Emmy led them in the direction of a large department store devoted to selling beautiful clothes. The assistant at the door provided Sirius with an appreciative grin, and he was about to start exercising his excessive charms on her, but was quickly preoccupied with the fact that Emmy had just informed them that she wanted to try something on.

"Try it on? Why can't you just buy it in the right size?" Sirius asked in bewilderment, closely watching her pick up a pair of dark wash form-fitting jeans from a rack filled with brashly-coloured clothes.

"I want to _check_ it's the right size!" she retorted cheekily, adding an olive green shirt dress to the pile of things she wanted to try.

"Fine, if you're trying something, I want to try something too!" Sirius exclaimed, grabbing something random off a rack and stalking off to the changing rooms, Emmy and James rapidly in pursuit.

A tall woman who was thin as a rake was on the door to the changing rooms, glaring at everybody snootily.

Emmy stopped the two boys just before getting there.

"You can't go in there, Sirius!" Emmy warned him as the toffee-nosed woman scowled at them condescendingly.

"Er, why not?"

"It's the women's changing room!"

"No it's not – that sign just says 'Changing Room'!" Sirius protested, walking purposely forward. The woman gave him a strange look as he walked in, holding what he wanted to try on and locked himself in a changing room. Emmy followed, shutting herself in the neighbouring room and James stood against the door of Sirius'.

"Emmy... I think I made a mistake..." Sirius whined through the wall.

"Why?" she replied, pulling on the jeans and finding they fitted perfectly, as did the olive shirt dress.

"Come out and see..."

She obliged and stepped out – to see Sirius dressed in a hot pink minidress over his t-shirt and jeans.

"It's way too small!"

"Did you intend to pick out a dress to try on?" Emmy asked, amused, as James howled with laughter a few steps away.

"Well, no – but I think I look rather fetching!"

"Take – it – off!" James choked out between guffaws.

"Fine," Sirius said in defeat, tugging the tight dress over his head, with a disapproving look from the hovering sales assistant.

"I'm getting these clothes," Emmy told them before vanishing back into her cubicle and changing back into her normal clothes.

"I wanted that dress," Sirius whinged as James tugged it out of his best friend's hands and gave it to the slightly bemused sales assistant.

"Stop whining!" James shot back as they paid for Emmy's clothes.

"Well, shopping in Muggle London has been a great experience," Sirius remarked optimistically as they veered back towards the tube station.

"Are you kidding? We're not finished yet!" James exclaimed.

"But... but..." Sirius stammered whilst gesturing to the numerous bags filled with clothes in all of the three teenagers' hands.

"Pads," James said lugubriously, "you forgot STARBUCKS!"

"But – Dorea said we shouldn't go there..."

"Actually, she said you need to keep an eye on us, Emmy dear. Fancy some hot chocolate with lots and lots and lots and lots of whipped cream?!" James asked elatedly. She nodded and both boys hooked their arms through hers and pulled her in the direction of the nearest Starbucks Coffee.

_

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_

There was a Shrek reference in that chapter, can you spot it? Thanks for reading, have a phenomenal week, vote and review! Please tell me what you think :) Love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	7. A Real Family

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: Sorry about the lack of update yesterday! Today's chapter is quite long though, so hopefully you like it! It's a very contemplative chapter I think, so hopefully you find it enjoyable. I just wanted to say that I know that Emmy seems to have grown close to the two boys quickly but she is eager to find a place and live out her new life to the full; it's explained a bit more in this chapter. Ever since her eyes locked with his when she helped him in that night a couple of chapters ago, she's kind of had this connection with Sirius, and it's as if they've known each other for years, even though they've only known each other a couple of days. And plus, both of them have just left their families, so they have a connection through that as well.

Thanks to Ash Blue, tanny apple, sovereignty'd, themysterywolf, Squid7000, Stephanie Cat-Kat, DSS Special Agent, sarlovesoccer and spannieren for reviewing and themysterywolf for adding my story to your alerts!

After I post this I'm closing my poll so thank you to everybody who voted and I will write the story according to your wishes :) I'll be adding a new poll too!!

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**Chapter Seven**

_**A Real Family**_

Two days later, the girls and Sirius seemed to be settling into family life with the Potters admirably. In Sirius' case, he spent most of his time at James' house so was already practically their second son anyway. The room he occupied was next door to James', and, as Dorea had previously said, a large proportion of his belongings were already there so he was right at home.

Emmy had settled in especially well amongst the family. James and Sirius were like her adopted family. They were both protective and inclusive of her and she fitted in well with their mischievous and roguish personalities. Emmy liked them both very much – James was like the older brother she had never had (he was older by a couple of months, seeing as his birthday was the twenty-seventh of March and Emmy's was the seventeenth of May), everything she would have imagined a brother to be. He was defending – he had also filled her in on what he would do to anybody at Hogwarts who hurt or maimed her in any way – and funny, plus he was extremely loquacious, which meant there was never a silent or uncomfortable moment with him around. Emmy felt tremendously close to Sirius – even though they had known each other no longer than seventy-two hours, it was as if they had this hidden, unspoken bond. He was charmingly obnoxious, comical and – Emmy would consider herself a fool if she didn't comment on this – the best-looking boy Emmy had ever seen. He was kind and the way he lazily slung his arm around her shoulders made her feel... strange. It was a nice strange though, almost as if she was feeling a complex mix of things that she had inexplicably never felt before. She put this down to the fact that he was like her best friend – she couldn't possibly love him after three days.

Caitlin was gradually getting better. Now she had written to Tom – she wrote at least once a day, but the day Emmy, Sirius and James had gone to London shopping she had corresponded with him five times – she was feeling much more like herself. She had noticed that she was slightly more reserved than usual, but it was to be expected; she had just lost her parents, for Merlin's sake. Emmy was being supportive and helpful, constantly checking she was okay, and the boys were being kind to her too, so she was feeling slightly more... part of the family. To her, James and Sirius were brothers. They were protective of her too, but, due to the time she had spent in her bedroom writing excruciatingly long and detailed letters to Tom (who Sirius and James were convinced was Caitlin's love interest), she wasn't as close to them as Emmy was. Caitlin knew that when the two boys had first met her they had been impressed by her looks (without being arrogant or supercilious, Caitlin was used to this) but she felt a little bit like her personality had let her down and had hindered her from settling in quicker. She wasn't as easily adaptable as Emmy to new situations, Emmy could be like a chameleon and blend in with anything. Caitlin knew Emmy was still grieving, but adjusted to situations better than her cousin. However, Tom's encouraging words were helping her to come out of her newly constructed shell and to join in more with the chats between her cousin and the two boys. She frequently talked to Charlie and Dorea, who were also helping her cope with her bereavement – but she was still finding it hard to come to terms with the fact that her parents were now gone. Though they were watching over her, the facts were inescapable.

James felt as if the two girls had always been in his life now. Sirius had, for the past five years, been there every step of the way. Now the two girls, who were like his sisters, were there as well. It was good for him – Emmy was helping him with something he wanted to sort out this year.

He wanted to make Lily Evans fall in love with him, just like he had with her.

The last few years, no matter how many times James had persistently tried to ask her out and profess his love for her, she had turned him down. In his eyes, Lily was a flame-haired angel with sparkling emerald eyes. There would be nobody the same. He knew that both Caitlin and Emmy were pretty attractive girls, but no-one could distract him from his Lily.

That was what he was afraid of.

He felt compelled to be with Lily Evans, to run his hands through her hair, to softly kiss her rose pink lips and to touch her pale skin. Nobody had ever made him feel that way before. He spent every waking moment thinking about Lily, and every sleeping moment dreaming about her.

"James?"

He stirred from his reverie to see his mother bustling into the living room, where he was sprawled across the settee (and across Sirius, who kept shoving James' feet out of his face, and Emmy, who was sat in the middle – Caitlin was sat in the armchair, slowly writing a letter to Tom, but also participating in the conversations) comfortably.

"Yeah?" he replied dreamily, imagining that Lily was Emmy and he was sat with his legs resting on Lily's lap, and she wasn't pushing them off, just sweetly laughing at Sirius' attempts to remove his apparently cheesy feet out of his face and smiling brightly at everybody present.

"Dinner's ready," she informed him, and he heaved himself off of the sofa, therefore enabling Sirius and Emmy to move.

Caitlin reluctantly left her unfinished letter on the coffee table, underneath a peacock feather quill, and followed the others into the dining room. Before them was set out a delicious spread – a roast with all the trimmings.

"I thought we could have a proper meal together, you know, as a family," Dorea said, a tear moistening her eye emotionally. The four teenagers and her husband smiled in gratitude and took their seats at the table.

The table in the Potters' dining room was round – and everybody, once their seat was picked, sat in the same place at every meal consumed in there. Charlie and Dorea sat beside each other, then on Dorea's left sat James, then Sirius, then Emmy and finally Caitlin, who was on Charlie's right.

Another thing the Potters did at mealtimes was, under the influence of the two music mad teenage boys residing in the house, play music quietly in the background. The record player (James', but Sirius argued that it was partly his because he provided most of the music played on it; James agreed in a way but said that Sirius' ownership on the record player was only marginal) sat on top of the dresser, in pride of place. Next to it was a stack of records – by The Beach Boys, Thin Lizzy, The Who and Queen, mostly, but there were also a few rogue ones there such as David Essex and David Cassidy, mostly for the benefit of Dorea. Tonight, Charlie had put on one of James' records of The Beach Boys so they were listening to the melodic voices on "God Only Knows" whilst chatting and eating the roast.

"So we were thinking that maybe we should go out tomorrow," Charlie informed them, "all of us, together."

"Ooh, where?" Sirius asked excitedly as if all his birthdays and Christmases had come at once.

"Well – seeing as we are only a few miles from the seaside..." Charlie replied.

"Really?" Emmy burst out. She had never been to the seaside and had _always _wanted to go. "I've never been!"

"You've never been to the _seaside_?" James said; his jaw dropped he was so thunderstruck. Emmy shook her head.

"I haven't either," Caitlin said meekly, and James did the same slightly insane jaw dropping thing all over again.

"That's settled, we're going!" Sirius answered on behalf of all of them.

"Ah, however, I am legally obliged to check where the food places are," James pointed out. Sirius nodded sycophantically, whilst Emmy and Caitlin laughed and Charlie and Dorea looked slightly nonplussed.

"Legally _obliged_?" Charlie echoed incredulously.

"Yep, Marauder law requires me to check there are suitable eating places nearby any place we are visiting," James informed them.

"James, you've been to the seaside a billion times. You know there is the fish and chip shop there, besides the little cafes," his mum replied.

"Ah, the chippy – what a cracking place it is!" Sirius grinned reminiscently.

"You only say that because you fancy the girl who works there," James sniggered into his roast potatoes, much to the amusement of everybody else present.

"And why is that so funny? She is a vision," Sirius professed poetically.

"That's what you always say," James quipped and Sirius reddened.

"Hey, at least I don't have 'Pictures of Lily' on constant play," Sirius stage-whispered, and now it was James' turn to flush magenta.

"It's a good song!" he said in defence, stuffing a carrot in his mouth to prevent himself from saying anything incriminating.

"I'm sure that's why you like it, Prongs," Sirius grinned wickedly, pouring a generous amount of gravy all over his food, flooding his plate and covering everything on it.

"So, the seaside then? Is it settled?" Charlie asked as James shot death glares at Sirius, who just kept smiling brightly at him.

"Yes, I think so," Emmy replied and Caitlin nodded.

As soon as dinner was finished, Emmy, James and Sirius went back to lolling on the couch and laughing at random things that each of them said and Caitlin returned to her letter, her cramped writing filling up side after side of parchment.

*

The next morning, Sirius decided, because of the fact he was very excited at the prospect of going to the seaside, he would employ himself as a human alarm clock. He leaped out of his bed and hurtled into James' room, where James was sound asleep, lying diagonally across his bed – with his feet on his pillow and his head at the bottom of the bed. He was muttering incoherent things and Sirius couldn't be bothered to listen to the workings of his friend's mind (he knew it would either concern Lily or Quidditch – probably most likely the former) so he jumped onto the bed and began to yell,

"_Wake up Prongs! Wake up Jamesy, it's a beautifuuuul hot day and we're going to the seaside! Wakey wakey, rise and SHIIIINE!"_

The next thing that happened was that James' anomalously large foot kicked Sirius in the face as a sign of his alarm clock routine being not welcome at the ungodly hour of – James lifted an eyelid and glanced at the clock on his wall – _twelve minutes past six in the morning_.

"Come on Jamesy, chop chop, the seaside awaits us!" Sirius caterwauled, unperturbed by James' groggy yet violent state.

"Come back when it's _light_," James hissed, thrashing his legs about in order to perhaps injure his supposed best friend who was incorrigibly excitable.

"It is, Prongsy, come on, I want to go!" Sirius persisted, standing up and jumping up and down on his best friend's bed like a child, singing loudly about his desire for them to get up.

When James eventually succeeded in heartlessly shoving Sirius off his bed, who landed on the floor with a loud bang. James' door was slowly pushed open and in walked Dorea, who looked as if she didn't know whether to laugh or shout at the two boys: the scene was comical. James was lying face down, the wrong way up, on his bed, beating his legs about wildly whilst Sirius was crouched down on the floor like a tiger about to spring, in order to wake James up.

"Er – boys?" she asked hesitantly, stepping in with her arms folded. The two boys looked up at her and grinned sheepishly.

"Hi Mum," James smiled.

"Good morning James," she replied suspiciously. "Seeing as you've woken me and your father up... you might want to wake up the girls."

"Goody!" Sirius said goofily.

"But wait for a bit – they don't have to get up as ridiculously early as you two have," Dorea said, leaving the room and going back downstairs.

"One... two... three.... we waited for a bit!" Sirius gabbled before launching himself through the door and diving through the slightly ajar door that led into Emmy's room with an ear-splitting crash.

Emmy woke with a start and tumbled out of bed onto the floor – right on top of Sirius, who was lying on the ground and nursing a bruised elbow, which he had hurt in the process of trying to emulate a professional Hollywood stuntman, rather unsuccessfully. As she wasn't quite wide awake, she began to drift back to sleep, lying on what she believed was a cushion she'd dropped on the floor in her sleep.

"Uh... Emmy?" Sirius said gently as he shifted slightly – Emmy's head was on his shoulder and she was leaning across his middle, her long legs parallel to his.

He coloured slightly at the precarious position he was in and when James opened the door further, he found his best friend, pink in the face, with Emmy fast asleep on top of him. He raised one eyebrow quizzically and Sirius fervently mouthed, "It's not what it looks like!"

"Sure it's not," James whispered teasingly, leaning against the door frame and folding his arms, staring at Sirius with a smug grin on his face.

"Emmy," Sirius said softly, nudging her with his arm – but to his immense misfortune, and James' immense delight, Emmy grabbed his arm and wrapped her own arms around it, smiling in her sleep.

"Bet you're loving that, aren't you, Pads?" James winked at him cheekily.

"She's asleep!" Sirius protested, trying again to wake up the sleeping girl who was lying across him.

"Why don't you just use the method you used to wake me up? EMMY!" James bellowed, his voice so thunderous everybody from his house to Pluto could hear him. This time Emmy woke up properly – and screamed.

"Aaaaarrrgggghhhh!" she squealed, soaring up from what she could now discern was _not _a cushion and was a teenage boy whom she was lying on and hugging the arm of.

"Hey, you fell on top of _me_," Sirius pointed out, "and I don't see why you're screaming!"

Emmy continued to shriek incessantly, wrapping herself up in her bed covers and backing into the corner.

"I think it was a bit of a shock, mate!" James smirked, snorting with laughter at his best friend's misfortune.

"You're damn right that it was a shock!" Emmy exclaimed from her sitting position in the corner. It was a shock to her that she had woken up basically in Sirius' arms, lying across him and actually feeling comfortable. The biggest surprise was that she had been clutching onto his arm as if it was a child's soft toy, never wanting to let go.

"I only came to tell you we're going to the beach today and can leave as soon as you get ready!" Sirius grimaced, sitting himself up and continued to tend to his injured elbow, made slightly worse by the way Emmy had been holding it.

"What's going on in here?" a new voice was added to the mix as Caitlin wandered in. She looked bewildered at the things going on in front of her – Sirius was sitting in the middle of the floor examining his elbow very closely, James was leaning against the door frame, snorting with laughter and Emmy was in the corner, wrapped up so tightly in her duvet that she looked like an Eskimo.

"Nothing, Caitlin, _absolutely nothing_!" Emmy said before shooing the boys out of her room so she could get dressed. James was still chuckling away to himself and Sirius kept blushing.

"Seriously, Emmy, what the bloody Merlin was that?" Caitlin quizzed her sceptically.

"Um, a wake up party?" she offered uncertainly before pulling what she was planning to wear at the beach out of her drawer.

"You cannot be serious!" Caitlin giggled as she saw the ensemble of clothes and accessories laid out on the bed.

"You know I burn in the sun, so I'm taking extra precautions, besides the factor fifty!" Emmy informed her. "Now go find yourself a bikini and get ready!"

"Gladly," Caitlin smiled and retreated back into her own room. She felt a lot more positive this morning – Tom had replied in the middle of the night so she was comforted by his words. Sometimes she thought Tom's words were the only things that made her feel better.

*

"Calling Agent E, Agent E, please come in!" Sirius said in a secret agent voice, pretending to talk into a non-existent walkie-talkie.

"I don't look that stupid!" Emmy retorted, shoving Sirius slightly, who laughed loudly.

"Excuse me, you look like somebody in disguise!" he replied, gesturing to her outfit. She looked down – she was wearing a mauve one-piece swimsuit with cut out side pieces underneath a long flowery purple and blue maxi dress, a grey cardigan, a big floppy hat and large sunglasses.

"I do not!"

"Do!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"Don't!"

"Do!"

"Okay, _okay_!" Caitlin said, interrupting their little argument and running up alongside them. They were walking along the sand at the beach, trying to find a nice place to sit and make – upon James' rather childish request – a sandcastle. She, unlike Emmy, was wearing a scarlet halter-neck bikini underneath a long vest top and had left her legs bare, attracting a lot of attention from passing boys – one of whom had managed to fall over and shove ice cream in his own face whilst doing so. "Charlie and Dorea think they've found the perfect spot, and then, after that, we can go to the chippy!"

"Oh, the chippy!" Sirius said happily, gaining a roll of the eyes from Emmy, who followed her bikini-clad cousin along the beach towards the proposed spot to build the castle.

Whilst they set to work on building the castle (ignoring James' requests to build a life-sized version which he could be king of), Charlie and Dorea set up deck chairs a little bit further back to give the teenagers some privacy – though James was yelling instructions so vociferously and Sirius kept addressing Emmy as "Agent E" so volubly that it was hard not to hear them.

Dorea was glad that they now, in effect, had four children. James would always be hers, her precious son, her baby, but now she was looking after the children of her deceased best friends as well, besides her son's own friend.

She couldn't believe how much of Gemma and Callie she saw in their girls. Callie – Calpurnia to the teachers, the only people Callie wouldn't threaten with a highly severe Bat-Bogey Hex if they didn't shorten her name the way she liked it – had been the tall, pale blonde of their group, the one who was seemingly irresistible to the male population of Hogwarts in their time. However, she didn't tend to go out with them, proclaiming them all "chicken-brained idiots" and saying that she was "waiting for the right boy to come along". It seemed she wasn't resistant to the violet-eyed charms of Dan Piper, the even taller, olive-skinned, dark-haired boy who had been eyeing her up since the moment he met her. Emmy was undoubtedly an amalgamation of her parents – the combined height of the two, the pale skin and blonde hair of her mother and the startlingly violet eyes of her father. Callie used to tell Dorea and Gemma stories of how Dan Piper attempted to charm girls solely with his eyes because he thought they were hypnotic. Dorea didn't think it would have been a hard job; the girls at Hogwarts were crazy for Dan's enthralling eyes.

Gemma had been the small but curvaceous bombshell with dark hair and a winning smile. She hadn't gone as far as to compare the male populace to a farmyard animal but instead befriended a lot of them – especially Steve, Dan Piper's just-as-good-looking twin. Gemma and Steve had gotten together early on in school – Dorea and Charlus hadn't even started going out until five years after leaving school after getting closer, both training on the wards at St Mungo's.

Looking at both Emmy and Caitlin, Dorea could tell that they were in for one hell of a ride at Hogwarts. She knew that they would have the time of their lives there – and that they would be closely protected by Sirius and James, who wouldn't let any harm come to them.

_

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_

I hope you liked it, please review! Thanks for reading - and the Shrek reference for last chapter was when Sirius said, "Wow... let's do that AGAIN!" which is what Donkey says when him and Shrek go to see Lord Farquaad in the castle :) Have a great rest of the week,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	8. The Boys Are Back In Town

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his purebloodmaniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: Firstly let me apologise profusely for the virtually 2-week-long update!! I am so sorry - I have had barely any time to go on fanfiction as I have had so much work to do, I'm sure it's the same for many people! Fortunately the week after next I'm on holiday so though I will have things to do I'm reserving the evenings for writing and updating! Thank you to MissCharStar, stinkypiebanana, EllieBaby (thank you for the multiple reviews!), ., KT Lee, AishaFLY, spannieren, Stephanie Cat-Kat, DSS Special Agent and sarlovesoccer for your lovely reviews; thank you to Learninghowtofly, . and MissCharStar for adding my story to your favourites and thank you to BeWithoutYou, KT Lee, . and starshine44 for adding my story to your alerts! I hope this chapter doesn't disappoint :)

I would also like to say that my amazing friend, Tanny Apple, has recently joined fanfiction and has just started posting her UTTERLY AMAZING story **Love And Potions Don't Mix**, so please go and read it as it's so good! Enjoy!

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**Chapter Eight**

_**The Boys Are Back In Town**_

September the first of that year had approached so fast Emmy hadn't realised where the time had gone. They had been living at the Potters' for a week, and yet she felt like she had spent her whole life there. When they stepped through the doors of Kings Cross station, she was undeniably nervous. She had dressed casually – she wore her coral jumper over a long white vest top and a grey skirt, with black studded brogues on her feet. Over her shoulder was a brown satchel containing her robes that she was going to change into on the train, called, according to her two new brothers and _Hogwarts: A History_, the Hogwarts Express.

That morning she had woken up to see Sirius sitting at the bottom of her bed, cross-legged, with a cheerful grin on his handsome face.

"Hey," he had greeted her, pointing his wand at something in the corner; Emmy had peered over his shoulder and saw that he had sneakily stolen the record player from downstairs to up here. The opening bars of "Twist And Shout", by the Beatles, sounded and filled the room.

"Are you being my personal alarm clock again? Because that caused a lot of distress last time," Emmy had laughed, sitting herself up and pushing her messy hair back. She wondered how Sirius could look so elegant in the morning, whereas she looked like she had been dragged through a hedge backwards, minus any leaves sticking in her hair.

Though she wouldn't have been surprised.

"Many a girl would have loved to be in your position," Sirius had winked impertinently. Emmy had rolled her eyes jokingly and leaned her head back against her pillow to relax.

"So, when we get to Hogwarts, will I find you constantly in the company of other girls? Or will I find you running through the corridors being chased by your own fan club?" she had teased, surreptitiously watching him as he formed an answer.

"Well, the whole fan club thing may happen. It is seriously over-rated though – would you want some slutty girl trying to smother you with luminous pink lipstick? I don't think so!" Sirius had shaken his head vehemently. "Apparently, Lily informed me that there is graffiti devoted to me in the girls' toilets."

"Nice," Emmy had commented in amusement, "you'd better hope that it's round the sinks and not on the actual toilet. That'd be kind of weird."

"Oh, it's not on the toilets. It's written in Permanent Ink on one of the mirrors. It's like a shrine to me," he had shivered, though still beaming at her.

"And how do you know that?" Emmy had questioned dubiously, pretending to stroke a beard, sitting forward and resting her elbows on her knees.

"I, er, had to go really desperately last year and the girls' toilet was the closest one..." he had shrugged as if this was a _completely _normal thing to do. Emmy had exploded with laughter, clutching her hurting sides as she lay on her bed, cackling with mirth.

"You've got a really nice laugh, do you know that?" Sirius had remarked – it was the first thing that came into his head upon seeing the blonde girl in front of him giggling away at his expense. Emmy had immediately stopped and leaned forward, her cheeks pink in embarrassment.

"Thanks," she had replied meekly.

"No problemo!" he had said brightly, and lifted himself off the bed. She mirrored his actions and soon they were both standing by the window, looking out into the Potters' garden, "Twist And Shout" fading out as it reached the end.

"So... will I like Hogwarts?" Emmy had questioned her new friend sincerely.

"Of course you will! I can't wait to give you The Sirius Black Grand Tour, which not only covers where everything is but also where mischief can be made!" Sirius had said in anticipation.

"So, Mr Black, you are a mischief maker?" Emmy had said as if this was a complete surprise to her.

"Well, I do as well as I can," he had said modestly. Then they grinned at each other and started laughing for the umpteenth time that morning.

"Sirius... there's just one more question I wanted to ask you..." Emmy had said timidly.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" he asked kindly.

"Will people at Hogwarts like me?"

"Emmy," Sirius had said, in the most heartfelt voice Emmy had ever heard him use – normally he was laughing and joking all the time, "you are one of the friendliest, kindest, most caring and conscientious people I know. Everyone at Hogwarts will _love _you." He smiled reassuringly and gave Emmy a quick hug before leaving the room to let her get ready to go. She'd already packed her trunk, filled with her school books, clothes and things, so all she needed to do was get ready. Sirius and James had been adamant that they would get something to eat from a sandwich stand just inside the station so they didn't need any breakfast.

True to their words, Sirius and James led them over to this sandwich shop and bought the girls two large bacon sandwiches (the girl on the stand seemed really interested in Sirius, but was instantaneously put off by the way he devoured his own Mega Breakfast Sarnie – containing egg, bacon, sausage, tomato, mushroom and ketchup – in a manner not dissimilar to a pig) so they sat on a bench next to their trunks and ate them. They watched other people dragging their own Hogwarts trunks and briefly saying "Hello," to the two boys – plus a lot of girls hurried past with pink faces.

"All members of the Sirius Black Fan Club, I presume," Emmy whispered into Sirius' ear as she finished off the remnants of her bacon sandwich.

"Of course!" he replied proudly.

When the four teenagers had finished their sandwiches, James and Sirius raced off to get a luggage trolley, dashing through disorientated people who watched them in confusion, as they shouted after each other and laughed loudly. Emmy and Caitlin watched them with much hilarity, and soon they came back, pushing one luggage trolley which they intended to pile all four of the trunks on top of.

"Are you sure it's safe?" Caitlin questioned quietly as she watched the four suitcases wobble precariously as the boys attempted to balance them to avoid any falling off.

"Of course, if they fall off, my name's not James Potter," James smiled and they began to push the trolley in the direction of the barrier to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

Emmy was excited about going on the platform – it was much more exciting than their Albanian school, which wasn't even a boarding one. They took arranged portkeys every morning with students who lived near them right into the grounds of the school – she presumed it was rather like a school bus service for Muggle students (she had learned about it in Muggle Studies).

It was one of the subjects she was also studying for NEWT level at Hogwarts – they had managed to transfer most of her subjects and equate her grades to the grades given at Hogwarts, which put her as a top student in the year in her OWL results. She had chosen to continue Muggle Studies, Transfiguration, Potions, Charms and Astronomy.

Caitlin had also transferred her subjects and had chosen to study Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, History of Magic, Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, and had done really well in her exams too. Both boys were also doing Astronomy, and were also going to be in some of the girls' classes.

"Here it is!" Sirius proclaimed histrionically, waving his arms around theatrically and letting go of the trolley – unfortunately, James had chosen that very moment to take his own hands off of the trolley and look around dreamily to see if he could spot the love of his life, Lily Evans.

"MERLIN!" Emmy cursed loudly as they watched the trolley, stacked high with suitcases and bags, trundle off rapidly down the platform, away from the barrier.

"Bloody hell!" James shouted, earning disapproving looks from other people around them as he scampered off after it. Sirius quickly followed and soon Emmy and Caitlin did too – the trolley was gaining more and more momentum and people were jumping out of the way of it as it hurtled towards the stone wall at the end of the platform.

"MIND OUT THE WAY OF THE TROLLEY!" James hollered as he practically tripped over his own feet following it. "IT SEEMS TO HAVE MURDEROUS TENDENCIES!" It was going back where they had just come from, from near the sandwich bar. Plenty of teenagers, obviously Hogwarts students, were chortling maniacally at the sight of the two boys racing after a rampant trolley.

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!" Sirius screeched as they ran into each other and crashed into the wall – right as the suitcases were thrown off the trolley and on top of them and two other people who had unfortunately been in the path of the trolley as it rampaged across Kings Cross Station.

"Wow... let's do that _again_!" James said giddily as the two boys began to guffaw – but then they remembered the other people who were hidden underneath the numerous suitcases resting on top of them in the collapsed heap against the wall.

"Let's not," a voice said wearily, pushing the suitcases away. A head popped out the top of the pile from where the suitcases had previously been, revealing a pale thin boy with sandy coloured hair and kind blue eyes.

"It's Moony! Aw, Moony!" Sirius cried ecstatically, throwing his arms around his fellow Marauder and comrade.

"Hey Padfoot – can you just loosen your arms a little bit, you're kind of asphyxiating me!" Remus Lupin warned with a chuckle.

"Moony – I've missed you so much!" James said emotionally, leaping through the pile and squeezing his friend tightly. "Even though you do use ridiculous words like "asphyxiating" - seriously, who uses them anymore? We're out of the nineteenth century!"

"Hi Prongs – do I need to reiterate what I just said?" he laughed.

"Where's Wormtail?" Sirius asked.

"Somewhere underneath this pile," Remus replied worriedly.

"Let's perform... _a rescue mission_!" Sirius declared dramatically and he dove back into the pile his two friends had just removed themselves from. Approximately five seconds later there was the sound of a muffled voice bellowing, "Found him!"

Ten seconds after that, Sirius emerged from the pile, holding a small mousy boy who was obviously about a foot shorter than the giant good-looking sixteen-year-old.

"Ah, Wormtail, nice of you to join us!" James said, hugging his other friend. It was at this point that Emmy and Caitlin hurried up behind them, gasping for breath as they had just practically sprinted up the station in order to catch up with their friends and the demented luggage trolley.

"I'm guessing you're Emmy and Caitlin," Remus said kindly.

"Yes, I'm Emmy Piper, pleased to meet you," Emmy replied, her voice soft and caring. She shook hands with Remus and received a genuine smile from him. He looked a frail boy, but he was incredibly compassionate and smart.

"Remus Lupin, Sirius and James wrote and told me about you," Remus added, "and you must be Caitlin," he finished, shaking hands with Caitlin, who smiled shyly. The fact both girls – especially Caitlin – were immensely attractive didn't escape Remus. He remembered that Sirius had described them both avidly in his letter – Emmy was apparently funny, tall, pretty, a laugh and a half, highly intelligent and would, as predicted by Sirius, fit in very well with the Marauders and at Hogwarts. Caitlin was, according to Sirius, quiet, timid, sweet, clever and looked like a goddess. So far Remus could only confirm what Sirius said.

"This is the last of the Marauders – but certainly not least – Peter Pettigrew, also known as Wormtail," James introduced as Peter was helped by Sirius out of the mound of suitcases, which they attempted to put back on the trolley. Peter gave them both a quick, diffident smile before leaping back to his trunk and pulling it behind him in the direction of Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. It wasn't long before all of them had regained control of their belongings and were ambling along to the platform, which was overrun by nervous first-years when they entered it.

To be fair, Emmy was just as excited as those first-years who were babbling wildly to their parents about what was going to happen to them in their years at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry – they knew they were in for the ride of their lives.

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I hope you enjoyed that!!! Next chapter (which should hopefully be up soon) sees them meeting Lily and experiencing the train ride to Hogwarts! Please review - and I don't think you need to guess who the song that the chapter is named after is by :) Have an amazing week, love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	9. The Hogwarts Express

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: Sorry about the wait! I'm working on Chapter 14 at the moment, which I'm finding difficult to write, but as soon as I finish it (hopefully today or tomorrow!) I will post another chapter :) Thank you to Squid7000, EllieBaby, xolunaxx, AishaFLY, SweetieCherrie, Madam Black-Lupin, sarlovesoccer, ., Stephanie Cat-Kat, spannieren and Bathsheaba for reviewing; thank you to SweetieCherrie, Thy Crimson Butterfly, sweetypie200494 and xolunaxx for adding my story to your alerts; thank you to Madam Black-Lupin, , xc1016 and LunaPadma for adding my story to your favourites and thank you to sovereignty'd for adding **Bad Romance **to the Marauders Galore community! :D Also, thank you to anybody who has read and reviewed my Valentine's one-shot **Apples**!

Another thank you... for your patience in my updating!!! Fingers crossed, it should be much quicker this time :) Enjoy the chapter!

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**Chapter Nine**

_**The Hogwarts Express**_

James had decided, for once, that he was going to be gentlemanly and try and carry Caitlin and Emmy's cases onto the Hogwarts Express for them – besides his own. This resulted in him carrying a case in each hand and one balanced on his head like he was some kind of circus act. His fellow Marauders, who had seated themselves on a wooden bench beside one of the great stone columns on the platform, were finding the sight uproarious and were laughing like hyenas, not for the first time that morning. Now they were reunited, everything seemed ten times funnier and, although, being boys, they did not like to admit it, the world seemed ten times brighter with their personalities remixing and the same old jokes resurfacing.

"James, don't ever go to work as a – what's it called? A bag man!" Sirius called as James manoeuvred himself through the doorway of the train and went into a carriage, waving at them through the window – and dropping his case off of his head.

"A bag man?" Emmy repeated, sounding ever so slightly confused. She was slightly more acquainted with muggle ways than Sirius was, but she'd never come across the term 'bag man' before.

"Yeah, the men who carry the bags!" Sirius responded as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Oh, you mean a _luggage handler_!" she giggled, and the other two boys and Caitlin started to laugh heartily.

"What?" he shrugged. "It's not like I took Muggle Studies!"

"Maybe you should have," Emmy teased, and he threw his arm around her once more, sending shivers down her spine. It was a quarter to eleven now – Dorea and Charlie had taken them to the station very early as it seemed to be common knowledge that James and Sirius took their time in doing anything. Emmy and Caitlin had grown accustomed to this over the past week – Caitlin was surprised how she had managed to adapt to their new life by the end of the week; not as much as her cousin, but still, she had tried and succeeded. Now they were off to their school – and would be there until the Christmas Holidays, which Dorea had informed them started halfway through December.

"I know all I need to know about Muggles," he protested.

"Oh yeah?" she mocked.

"Yeah! Such as... they invented records, play bloody brilliant music, they make motorbikes and some muggle women sit on these in bikinis and have their photos taken," Sirius answered with a huge grin at the thought of his beloved posters he left behind at Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. Although originally he had stuck them up as a form of rebellion and defiance, he had gotten used to seeing them every morning when he woke up, especially seeing as a particularly large one faced his bed.

"Hmmn... I think they did a little _more_ than that, but go with that, go with that!" Emmy chuckled before standing up. "Isn't it time we got onto the train now? We can join James in the carriage!" She didn't even bother to hide the excitement in her voice as the other boys and her cousin got up and followed her to train door. She could only marvel at the train; bright scarlet, puffing steam out – it was thoroughly enchanting.

Emmy was completely insensible of the stares her and her cousin were getting – appreciative stares from boys and bewildered stares from the girls. Appreciative because both of them, especially Caitlin, were easy on the eye and bewildered because no-one had ever seen them before, and they were quite blatantly not in first year. They even attracted a few jealous stares for being in such close proximity to Sirius Black and the rest of the Marauders, who were somewhat legendary within most of the school. Emmy, finding this rather amusing, had envisioned them as, when James had given her the David Essex and Robert Redford analogy for Sirius, the equivalent of the Beatles within their school. Everybody loved them and they were seriously talented.

"Here you all are!" James said despairingly as they filed into the carriage he had reserved by unceremoniously dumping the suitcases on the floor. "I was beginning to get worried!" He proceeded to throw his arms around Sirius' neck and sob into his shoulder. "I mean, there's all manner of things out there," he cried, "Snivellus and whatnot!"

"It's okay James, it's okay," Sirius said soothingly as everybody took their seats. Emmy was sat to the left of the window, next to Sirius, who had James on his other side. Opposite Emmy sat Caitlin next to Remus, and Peter on the end. James had strategically left a very large gap next to him in case, he informed them (when he had ceased his pretend-crying), Lily came past and couldn't find a seat.

Sirius whispered to Emmy that this wasn't very likely as Lily would most probably be sitting with her friends, but he thought it was good to humour his Lily-mad friend because otherwise he would go insane. Remus then added that James was already there, having heard the little conversation, earning a kick from James himself.

"Anyway, Remus, aren't you supposed to be prefecting?" James enquired pointedly.

"Um, is 'prefecting' even a _word_?" Remus shot back.

"Well it should be," James said, waving his arms about in a manner not dissimilar to a baby bird learning to fly.

"Careful, Prongs, you're going to take somebody's eye out!" Peter warned from opposite him. James carried on until he _accidentally _(on purpose) hit Sirius on the back of the head, smiled apologetically and said,

"Point taken."

"In answer to your previous question, James, I'm going, um, _prefecting _in a minute, and Lily's going too–" Remus began, but the mere mention of Lily's name sent James crazy. He started ruffling up his hair to make it look, in his words, _windswept_ (but Emmy supposed a more accurate description would be extremely messy) and grinning widely as if he had just discovered that all homework and exams were forever cancelled.

"I want to meet Lily," Emmy grinned.

"Oh, she is the most _divine _girl ever to walk this earth – she has beautiful emerald eyes, shining copper hair and skin as pale as snow," James said dreamily, only reiterating what he had told them all a million times before.

Remus stood up, shaking his head, and said to them all, "Farewell, good luck with James!" He left the carriage, walking in the direction of the Prefects' compartment.

It was five to eleven now, and James was anxiously watching the hall between the compartments to see if he could spot his lovely Lily anywhere. She didn't seem to be within sight, and he thought he would have heard or seen her by now, as her flaming hair didn't give her much chance to duck out of vision. He turned back to his friends – Caitlin was deeply engrossed in (what else?) writing a letter to Tom, but at least she was _smiling _when she wrote it. Before she used to cry when writing and there would be tear marks on the letters where they smudged the ink. Peter, Sirius and Emmy, however, were avidly discussing Quidditch, so James decided, as it was one of his best conversational topics, to join in. Soon then were debating which team was better – the Chudley Cannons or the Holyhead Harpies - and didn't even notice the train chugging out of the platform and out of London in the direction of their beloved Hogwarts.

Sometime later, there was a banging sound in the hallway. It jolted Caitlin and Emmy out of their comfortable state – it brought back the memories of that day, just over a week ago, when it all happened. The memory ran through Emmy's head like a broken record that just couldn't be fixed, and both girls instantly paled. The sound was so uncanny to the one they had heard from the garden, their door being knocked down...

_Brightly coloured sparks – spells – were ricocheting off of the walls and pictures and ornaments were smashing, falling to the floor and littering it with shards of glass and china. She could see four cloaked figures inside, moving round, yelling curses as her aunt and uncle tried helplessly to fight back. They were Aurors – but had been caught off guard. _

"_What is it?" Caitlin asked in terror, clocking Emmy's face had paled even beyond her normal skin tone._

_Emmy couldn't reply – her voice had gone with the shock of the sight she was witnessing. Her aunt turned to see Emmy's face at the window – a tear escaped her eye and she mouthed, "Run." _

_Emmy didn't need to be told twice – she grabbed Caitlin's hand, who clamoured to get to the window over Emmy's shoulder, but Emmy wrapped her arms around her cousin's waist, pulling her towards the fence, as they heard a harrowing voice bellow, "CRUCIO!"_

"_Emmy, what's happening? What's going on in there?" Caitlin cried hysterically, refusing to be pulled over the fence. Tom leaped out of the tree and grabbed her, lifting her over it against her will. _

"_Death Eaters," was all Emmy could choke out as she clambered over the fence, grabbing Tom's offered hand. _

James and Peter were unaware and flung the carriage door open – but Sirius saw them and put his arm around Emmy and nudged Caitlin comfortingly. They both smiled at him appreciatively – and when they heard James emit a hearty laugh, they knew nothing was wrong. The colour slowly came back into their cheeks and they followed the two boys out into the corridor, Sirius right behind them.

"Honestly, Potter, I don't know why you find this so funny!" a girl shrieked at James. Emmy stood on her tiptoes to see past James' head – to see a girl who could only be the infamous Lily Evans. She was devastatingly beautiful, with bright green almond-shaped eyes that lit up her whole dainty face, which was faintly freckled and blushing pink. She had shoulder-length, thick, wavy red hair that curved around her face and highlighted her petite features. She was quite a bit shorter than Emmy, maybe the same height as Caitlin, and was slim but with pronounced curves.

"Maybe it's because you fell down just right outside my carriage," James responded jovially.

"I tripped, okay?" she retorted irritably, crossing her arms in annoyance.

"You fell for me, Evans, just admit it," he grinned audaciously. She shook her head vigorously, spluttering out an answer.

"Like I ever would!" she huffed.

"Did I not tell you? I earned an Outstanding in my Divination OWL and I saw in a crystal ball you marrying me. Just you wait, Evans, one day..." he said calmly, smiling lightly at her.

"Stop it, Potter! I only came up this end of the train because I'm supposed to be patrolling the corridors," Lily excused herself, turning around – but James softly put his arm on her elbow to stop her. She couldn't even ignore the tingles it sent down her spine, feeling his touch on the bare skin of her arm.

"Don't you want to meet my new friends?" he asked earnestly. Lily melted. He would do this every time – making a big show of liking her and asking her out, employing all the witty banter and remarks he could think of, but then he would calmly ask her something and it would just... mellow her. He confused her _so _much.

"New friends?" she questioned.

"Ooh, who's got new friends?" a new voice was added to the mix. It came in the form of an approaching girl, who was very tall and, like Lily, very attractive. She had dark skin and jet black hair that was poker straight, in a fashionable bob with a blunt fringe that only emphasised her caramel eyes. She was very skinny, but rather bodacious. Unlike Lily, she wasn't yet dressed in her school robes and was still wearing a relaxed checked shirt and tight, form-fitting jeans.

"Hey Aretha!" James greeted the new girl optimistically.

"Hi James," she smiled genuinely, giving him a quick wave. "Where's Sirius?"

"I'm right here," Sirius called and, because of her generous height (Emmy was sure the girl would tower over her), she could spot him above everybody else. Though, with Sirius, it wasn't exactly difficult, as he was a six-foot-four broad-shouldered boy, so he would have been easy to spot in a crowd.

"Maybe we should move back into the carriage, I want you to meet our new friends," James suggested and they all entered the carriage previously occupied by the Marauders, Caitlin and Emmy and sat down. As Lily and her friend entered, they instantaneously clocked the two strangers sat down. One violet-eyed and pale with honey-blonde hair and the other olive-eyed, tanned with dark brown hair. Both, in Lily and Aretha's opinion, were stunning, especially the dark-haired girl.

"These are our new friends, fresh from Albania!" James began to introduce them elaborately, but Sirius thankfully cut in.

"This is Emmy Piper," he said, gesturing to the girl sat next to him with the honey-blonde hair and – Aretha noticed – who currently had Sirius Black's arm resting around her shoulders comfortingly. "And Caitlin Piper," he said, smiling at the girl sat opposite him, who was clutching some parchment and a quill, the girl with the dark hair and the olive eyes.

"Hi," Emmy said friendlily, holding out her hand for the two girls to shake.

"Lily Evans," Lily smiled charmingly, firmly shaking Emmy's hand and grinning welcomingly at Caitlin, who seemed a lot shyer than Emmy.

"Aretha Jessop," Aretha introduced herself, also shaking Emmy's hand.

"It's really nice to meet you," Emmy said brightly as the girls took seats amongst the Marauders who were scattered about the carriage (Remus having now joined them after hearing the commotion in the corridor) – Lily was reluctant to take a seat by James so was now squashed between Remus and Peter whilst both Emmy and Aretha flanked Sirius, who still had his arm round Emmy's shoulders, still comforting her after her flashback of what had happened.

"So – I'm not meaning to be rude, but are you actually English? Because you speak the language so fluently and you don't have a different accent at all," Lily asked interestedly.

"We both grew up in England," Caitlin spoke, looking up from her letter. "But when we were reasonably young, before we started any sort of magical schooling, we moved out to Albania. Both sets of our parents were Aurors and were posted out there and we've stayed there ever since – well, until now, really." She said the last bit so quietly and mournfully that both Lily and Aretha sensed this was a point not to press.

"So did you live together?" Aretha questioned.

"Yes – well, my parents died when I was five; no, it's okay," Emmy rapidly added as the two girls went to mumble embarrassed apologies, "so I've lived with Caitlin ever since then. And the neighbourhood we lived in was full of English Ministry workers, posted out there for different reasons."

"Our friend Tom, who lived next door," Caitlin began, her face lighting up at the mention of Tom, her regular correspondent, who made her feel better whenever she felt blue and who was gradually and lovingly helping her to cope with her loss, "his parents worked for the Ministry too. Not in the Auror Department, something to do with Muggle Artifacts or animals or something."

"Cool," Lily smiled, "do you know what houses you're going to be in?"

"No," Emmy replied nervously – Sirius and James had explained to her the concept of the school houses over large hot chocolates covered in gallons of whipped cream at Starbucks in London (without causing any problems, except for the hundreds of serviettes they'd had to use to mop themselves up when they had a competition to see who could get the most whipped cream on their faces) and how people got sorted into them. Dorea had told the two girls that they would be sorted with the first-years when they got to Hogwarts and that it was nothing to worry about. Emmy hoped this would be the case.

"You definitely won't be in Slytherin," Aretha assured them both kindly.

"Are you both in Gryffindor then?" Emmy enquired.

"Yep," Lily answered, "in our year there're these idiots, minus Remus" – ("HEY!"; "Lily, you know you love me really!") – "and for the girls, there's me and Aretha, and then there's Mary MacDonald, who's really nice and is the school gossip and knows virtually everything about everybody. I think you'd really like her! She's busy with her boyfriend Claude at the moment–"

"_Claude_?" Sirius gasped, before exploding with laughter and practically crying into Emmy's shoulder.

"He's a seventh-year Ravenclaw. Anyway, Claude's better than his real name," Aretha replied, not trying very hard to keep the grin off her face, "_Claudius_."

"What a poor, unfortunate kid," James said compassionately before joining in with the rest of the chortles overtaking the teenagers sat in the carriage. He caught the laughing eyes of Lily, who quickly blushed and looked away. He smiled to himself.

It was only a matter of time before Lily would admit she liked him.

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So we've met Lily and Lily's friend Aretha! I hope you liked it, thanks for reading :D Next chapter is when we meet... dun, dun, DUUUUN... Regulus Black! Please review, love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	10. Those Violet Eyes

**Bad Romance**

By Lily Orange

_When disaster strikes for cousins Caitlin and Emmy Piper, they are taken from their Albanian home by Ministry of Magic officials to live with Caitlin's father's old school friends, Charlus and Dorea Potter, in Britain. The same night, Sirius Black decides he has had enough of his pureblood maniac family and runs away to live with the family of his best friend James Potter. On September the 1st, Regulus Black sees his brother for the first time since he ran away – with the most beautiful girl he has ever seen. Romance, humour, friendship, mischief, heartbreak and tears ensue – and will Caitlin and Emmy find peace in their relationships?_

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Harry Potter - anything you recognise, I don't own :)

_A/N_: Guess what? It SNOWED!! I woke up this morning and looked out of the window and there was all this beautiful snow on the ground. :D Anyway, sorry about that random note there! Thanks to sarlovesoccer, MissCharStar, Squid7000, Kuroi Kasai, xolunaxx, DSS Special Agent and Deevee White for reviewing; thanks to LunaPadma and Deevee White for adding my story to your favourites and thanks to Lady Drama for adding my story to your alerts!

Most of you were saying in your reviews that you were eagerly anticipating the arrival of Regulus - so I hope this doesn't disappoint! His character will develop as the story progresses so this is just the moment when Regulus meets Emmy for the first time. I hope you like it, please review!

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**Chapter Ten**

_**Those Violet Eyes**_

When Lily and Remus had finally left the carriage to finish off the Prefect duties they were supposed to have been doing whilst they were actually telling jokes and funny stories about the summer, Aretha kicked the boys out for a minute so they could change into their school robes. Emmy peeled off her new jumper and replaced it with the alien school uniform that felt so strange on her skin – she was used to the light weight summery uniform of her Albanian magical school. They had worn that uniform with sandals for their school shoes because it was so hot out there. Now on her feet were smart patent Mary Jane style shoes with a T-bar that were fashionable without being too stylish.

"We're nearly at Hogwarts now," Aretha said conversationally to break the somewhat awkward silence that had descended upon the carriage once the sparkling personalities of the boys had left. Aretha had observed already, although only having known them for a couple of hours, much about the two new girls. Caitlin was the quiet one – she was almost studious in the way she wrote the letter in the corner of the carriage, assiduously writing down what Aretha thought to be her personal feelings to her correspondent, who remained a mystery. Caitlin was undeniably dazzling; it was quite obvious by the way that when boys passed the carriage, they stopped to stare at her. She was quite oblivious, her attentions absorbed in the parchment, quill and midnight blue ink before her, and only offering something in the way of conversation when she believed something was significant enough to be said.

Emmy was the epitome of a glittering personality herself – she was quite patently a genius in the intelligence levels, when she laughed it was an uproarious sound that was contagious, she was kind in the way she addressed her more inhibited cousin and it was quite clear that she was comfortable meeting new people. Now the boys had left, however, Aretha wondered whether she appeared so at ease speaking to them because she had the support of Sirius and James, who complimented her character flawlessly. Though this may have been the case, Emmy was instantly likable – she was somebody Aretha envisioned as being a good friend to her, Lily and Mary. If she got into Gryffindor. Her intellect could quite easily place her in Ravenclaw, but her bold and comical ways could put her in Gryffindor. She was kind and friendly too, which was undoubtedly a trait of Hufflepuff.

Aretha smoothed down her grey skirt, which had been intentionally shortened so that it ended a couple of inches above her knees, exhibiting her shapely legs, which were encased in knee-length lighter grey socks which she had pushed down slightly to make her uniform look less perfect. The top button was undone on her shirt and her red and gold Gryffindor tie was tucked into a buttoned up cardigan underneath her black robes. She turned round to see that Emmy and Caitlin were both dressed the same, but had on plain black ties with the Hogwarts crest emblazoned across the knot instead. She also noticed that, though Emmy was a couple of inches shorter than her, she had longer legs – her skirt appeared slightly shorter than the mandatory knee-length and the socks reached her mid-calf.

"I'm really excited!" Emmy said happily, breaking the silence once again. Her attempt was more successful than Aretha's, however, as it encouraged the introverted Caitlin into the conversation too.

"I'm kind of worried about the sorting," she confided, anxiously picking at her nails.

"Don't worry, you'll be fine," Aretha smiled altruistically. She remembered her sorting – it had worried her to no end, but she had lived through it and now had a whale of a time, partying, joking and, _obviously_, working. There was just a higher proportion of the former...

"Thank you," Emmy said appreciatively, "hopefully we'll be sorted into the same house as all of you, then at least I'll know people!"

"The only people that aren't very nice are the Slytherins, but as long as you don't bother them, they don't bother you," Aretha advised judiciously.

"I'll remember that," Emmy chuckled as the boys barged back into the compartment, demanding that they should be able to sit down again because it was boring in the corridor and once they had hexed Snivellus there was nothing else that was fun to do.

"Snivellus?" Caitlin echoed in confusion.

"Severus Snape, our nickname for him," Sirius said, his face contorted with disgust, displaying his contempt for the boy.

The two girls had heard much about Severus Snape, Lily Evans' ex-best friend. Apparently he had called her a "Mudblood," and she refused to forgive him. James had said that Lily was better without him as he hung around with soon-to-be Death Eaters like Avery and Mulciber.

"We're about five minutes away, so grab your stuff!" Remus declared, rejoining them in the carriage. They left their trunks, as they were taken up to school from the train, but grabbed their wands and stuffed the uneaten treats bought off of the trolley (Sirius had gluttonously purchased three-quarters of the stock) into their pockets. Emmy and Caitlin gave each other a quick hug as the train was brought to a halt. Outside the Marauders, Lily and Aretha saw the familiar lights of Hogsmeade Station – it was like coming home.

They filed out of the carriage and into the corridor – Aretha first, followed by Lily, Remus, Caitlin, James, Peter and then finally Emmy and Sirius, who were chatting some more about Quidditch.

The crowd of students trying to exit the train meant they were virtually pushed out, carried by the crowd. Sirius held onto Emmy's arm in support so they were not separated by this – but as they were pushed out, Emmy unintentionally banged quite forcefully into an unsuspecting boy.

He turned round, intent on giving whoever had just shoved him an earful and perhaps showing them a hex or two that he had perfected over the summer whilst he was alone without his brother there. He opened his mouth to start ranting at her, but when his shimmering grey-blue eyes met the violet eyes looking at him apologetically, he was stopped abruptly.

Before him stood an absolute angel – she was a couple of inches smaller than him, with honey blonde hair cascading down her back enchantingly, her skin was beatifically pale, so pale it almost emanated a silvery glow, and her eyes! Those eyes, they were an astonishing shade of violet – but when he looked at them closer, he saw innumerable colours speckled in her irises; sapphire blue, emerald green and chocolate brown, to name but a few. They lit up her goddess like face, which had thoroughly captivated him.

It was love at first sight.

"I am _so _sorry," she said earnestly, giving him a nervous smile.

"It's fine, absolutely fine," he replied, grinning widely and charmingly. Although he may not have been as good-looking as his older brother, he could tell she was vaguely impressed. He was still taller than her, about six foot, and although he had a slim build, he was surprisingly strong. He had dark straight hair that flopped in his eyes in a manner that some of the girls in his house told him was quite handsome – but was overshadowed by his older brother.

"That's good – I'm sorry, I don't know your name, I'm new," she continued as the crowd continued to move them further away from the train and up the platform.

_You don't say_, he thought brightly. He was about to answer her when he saw that she had a large and familiar hand softly holding hers on her other side. He looked up and met the stormy grey eyes of his older brother, who glowered at him disapprovingly.

"Come on, Emmy, let's go and find Hagrid," Sirius declared, narrowing his eyes and glaring at his younger brother malevolently.

Regulus Black felt sad that she was now pulled through the crowd by his domineering older brother – she gave him another of her stunning apologetic smiles as Sirius steered her away, in the direction of Rubeus Hagrid, who would be taking everybody to be sorted.

So her name was Emmy, at least he knew that. It was something. But she was friendly with his brother – no doubt she was close to him by the way he was holding her hand protectively in the crowd.

He rejoined his Slytherin friends, Gibbon, Dolohov and Crabbe, but still couldn't stop thinking about that enigmatic beauty he had just run into. Even the fact that she was friendly with his brother and no doubt the Marauders and that girl that James Potter was so in love with (as was Severus Snape, Regulus knew, though he had never deigned to admit it) Lily Evans and her stupid friends – which meant she probably wasn't going to get sorted into Slytherin – he still felt inexplicably drawn to her, like a bee to honey.

"Alright, Reg?" Dolohov asked him as he jumped into the nearest carriage with them and sat down, looking back towards the group of first-years standing with Hagrid. He could see Emmy towering above them, and another girl who was noticeably taller with dark hair. He watched Emmy intensely as their carriage jolted off towards Hogwarts, until the impenetrable darkness obscured her from his vision.

"Reg?" Dolohov repeated, perplexed. He peered out of the window and saw nothing, nothing that Regulus could have been staring at anyway.

Regulus snapped out of his momentary reverie and looked back at his friends. "Oh yeah, I'm fine," he quickly said, dissolving any suspicion they had. They looked away, accepting his answer instantaneously. Regulus sneered at this – as Slytherins, they were supposed to be cunning and deceitful, but they couldn't tell when someone was lying very well, or trying to conceal the truth. It was almost laughable, their ineptitude at this.

When they stepped out of the carriage at the top of the hill, in the shadow of the rather portentous-looking Hogwarts castle, Regulus glanced down to the Black Lake – yes, he could see the little fleet of boats, led by the slightly large one, sat in by that giant Hagrid, sailing across, all of their occupants staring at the castle with silent awe etched upon their young faces. He briefly smiled, remembering exactly how that felt – how it felt to see the castle for the first time, the lasting and indescribable impression it left.

He took a seat at the Slytherin table, next to Gibbon and opposite Dolohov. On his other side sat a particularly attractive seventh-year girl named Seraphina Ornys, who was exotic and interesting – but in Regulus' opinion, she paled in comparison to Emmy.

"Hi Regulus, have a good summer?" Seraphina asked in her usual flirtatious manner, her voice sugary sweet and velvety. Just a day ago he would have lapped up the attention Seraphina provided him with, but now he wasn't bothered. According to Seraphina's friend, Astilbe Moore, also a Slytherin, Seraphina was particularly taken with Regulus.

"Yes thanks," he answered, rather abruptly, and Seraphina pouted slightly as she saw him turn to watch the large oak doors that he knew Professor McGonagall was standing behind, lecturing the new students about the Sorting.

Moments later, they burst open, and Professor McGonagall, the rather ascetic Transfiguration teacher, strode in, followed by meek-looking first years and, at the back, the two new girls. Regulus instantly smiled when he saw Emmy – just as beautiful and as blonde as he remembered. Next to her stood the other girl, the brunette, who seemed to be the object of a lot of stares from the boys of the school, but he was too taken with Emmy to notice.

What Regulus failed to realise was that right at that moment, Sirius had clocked him staring avariciously at Emmy, and was disgruntled. There was no way he wanted his Death Eater-in-training brother anywhere _near _her. They didn't know how Emmy's parents had died, but they had presumed it was because of a Death Eater attack – and now her guardians had died because of the Death Eaters. It would just have been too much pain for her to bear, knowing he associated with and aspired to be like the likes of those who had killed her aunt and uncle, Caitlin's parents.

"When I call your name," Professor McGonagall announced, her voice so austere everybody stopped looking at the new girls and turned their heads to view the Head of Gryffindor House, "you will come forward, sit on the stool and I will place the Sorting Hat on your head, and then you will be sorted into whichever house is deemed suitable for you."

There was a deep intake of breath as Professor McGonagall glanced at her list to ascertain the first name.

"_Anderson, Michael_!" she called. An auburn-haired boy eagerly leaped forward to the stall and rammed the hat down on his head. A few moments later, the hat shouted,

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

The Hufflepuff table cheered and everyone else clapped lightly whilst Professor McGonagall read more names off the list and more people were sorted.

"_Daniels, Thomas_!"

"RAVENCLAW!"

"_Davison, India_!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

"_Day, Rosanna_!"

"GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table erupted as the first girl to be placed in their house ran down and found herself a seat at one end of the table.

"_Eagles, Enid_" became the first Slytherin female. McGonagall carried on through the alphabet, until she suddenly shouted,

"_Piper, Caitlin_!"

Caitlin gulped anxiously, and walked through the small group of first years left to be sorted. Hundreds of pairs of eyes followed her to the stool and watched her sit down self-consciously as Professor McGonagall placed the hat on her head.

_Aah..._

Caitlin flinched as she heard the strange voice of the Sorting Hat in her own mind. It was an ethereal feeling, but nevertheless she listened closely as she heard it speak to her.

_You have recently suffered a great personal loss... such tragedy will never be forgotten, and you certainly have changed completely since it happened... before, perhaps a bold, effervescent and outspoken Gryffindor whose extroverted ways would have won her a million friends. Now, a quite, assiduous and introverted individual who is not likely to return to her vivacious ways... You want to focus on your studies... to gain good qualifications and to train a profession worthy of making your deceased parents proud... You are prepared to shun partying and romance in order to achieve this new ambition... Working hard and making a few close friends is what you want, better make you..._

"RAVENCLAW!"

The Ravenclaw table cheered and whooped deafeningly as Caitlin blushed and joined them. Two sixth-year Ravenclaw boys squished up in order to make room for her, and they all began to shower her with admiring glances.

James and Sirius were slightly worried – they knew how reticent Caitlin could be, she had only just begun to warm up to them. It would be harder for them to look after her if she was in a different house to them. They knew people in it – Lily, Aretha and Mary, who were sat a little way down from them, were friendly with a couple of Ravenclaws who were really nice. Sirius had dated – very briefly – one of them, a cute bookish girl named Nathalie Partridge, who would probably befriend Caitlin.

Emmy was surprised – when she had read up on the different houses and what qualities belonged to the students in the houses, she was sure that Caitlin would go into Gryffindor. Before what happened, she would have been the quintessential Gryffindor student, embodying their fun-loving and daring natures perfectly. Now, she supposed, her cousin had changed.

Emmy didn't have much more time to ponder this before her own name was called –

"_Piper, Emmanuelle_!"

Regulus watched her devotedly from his seat, ignoring the seductive looks Seraphina kept shooting him, batting her eyelashes and smiling coyly. So that was her name... _Emmanuelle_... It was so beautiful, just like her.

Emmy seated herself on the stool and felt Professor McGonagall lightly drop the hat on her head. She didn't move when she heard the voice of the Sorting Hat inside her own head... it was the sort of thing she expected...

_So the cousin of a new Ravenclaw? You, too, have experienced much personal tragedy... though you don't forget it, you bounce back and have learned to love life and not be afraid of it... An incredibly intelligent girl I see, much more intelligent than everyone else in her year... Things come naturally to you, you are a natural-born learner... Funny, occasionally mischievous and easily likable by many people... Though you shall devote yourself to studies, simultaneously you'll balance it with parties and night time excursions... You are brave and proud without being rude and ostentatious... you are the archetypal – _

"GRYFFINDOR!" it roared, and thunderous applaud met her ears as she sat down at the Gryffindor table next to Sirius. She was completely unaware of the sad look that Regulus Black gave her.

In truth, he knew there was no way Emmanuelle Piper was going to be a Slytherin. She was far too... smiley and genuine. She was the sort of person who told people things, she was kind, she cared and she was... brilliant. He had never felt so immediately endeared to a girl before, not even Seraphina, who was growling enviously at the way even the Slytherin boys watched Caitlin Piper at the Ravenclaw table, who was nervously conversing with the people around her.

Emmy could see the students on the Ravenclaw table coaxing Caitlin out of her shell, and was pleased. She was glad her cousin looked happy and cheerful – although she wasn't in the same house as her, she was going to ensure that she looked after her as much as possible and always made sure that she was as happy as she could be. She meant the world to her.

Just as the two boys she could now say she was closest too in the whole world, apart from Caitlin, did.

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What did you think about Regulus and the whole different House thing? I thought that would make it less predictable... Thank you for reading, please review! And don't forget to check out

**Love And Potions Dont Mix**,_ by Tanny Apple! It's amazing :D love and hugs,_

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	11. First Night

**Bad Romance**

_By Lily Orange_

**A/N: **Sorry about the ridiculously long wait for a chapter - I am really annoyed at myself about it! Thank you so much for your continued support, reviews, favourites and alerts, it means so much and I hope you are still enjoying the story. I'm sorry I haven't written out everybody's names, I will do next chapter but this is a bit hurried!

Also Tanny Apple has an awesome new story called **Random Notes **up so please read and review it, I guarantee that it'll make you laugh, plus I've just updated **The Love Guru**, so I hope you enjoy them!

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**Chapter Eleven**

**_First Night_**

Whilst Emmy was voraciously devouring her food – something sampled from every plate of food on offer – Sirius nudged James to let him know he wanted to tell him something. Unfortunately, at the very moment Sirius did this, a spoonful of gravy-sodden potato was en route to James' mouth – and his jolted elbow dropped the spoon, and the soaking wet potato, into his lap.

"Thanks Pads," James said sardonically. Then he looked contemplative. "Do you think I could still eat it? I mean, is Lily looking?"

Sirius hadn't the heart to tell his best friend that Lily had not looked his way throughout any part of the Sorting or meal, and instead had busied herself with either talking to Emmy, Mary or Aretha or eating.

"Nah, not right at the moment," he said, then lowered his voice to a whisper. "Regulus has been staring at Emmy all evening. He bumped into her on the platform at Hogsmeade and since then has been watching her like a hawk."

In synchronisation, both boys peered around Remus and Peter to look at the Slytherin table and observed the fact that Regulus' blue-grey eyes were locked on Emmy, and a small smile was playing on his lips.

"Now that is creepy," James shuddered, shovelling more vegetables into his mouth rather crudely. It was at that moment that Lily actually chose to glimpse in his direction, and what she saw didn't exactly impress. James' table manners often left a lot to be desired. "I think," he began, his mouth full of a weird-coloured mush that used to be carrots and peas, "he is in _love_ with her."

"He can't be, he's barely met her!" Sirius protested, then lowered his voice again as he didn't want Emmy to hear him. She was immersed in a conversation about which Quidditch player was most attractive with Lily, Aretha and Mary, so was oblivious.

"You said he bumped into her on the platform, did he speak to her?" James replied, grabbing a tureen of gravy and pouring more of it onto his plate.

"Bloody hell, Prongs, you're the gravy king!" Sirius laughed, before reverting his mind back to the issue in hand. "I don't think so. He was just looking at her. Like he is now. Like some kind of weird _stalker_. A bit like you, James."

"Like me?" James said in horror, looking back at Regulus' facial expression. "Merlin, I hope I'm not that pug-ugly!"

Both boys laughed heartily at this, and silently decided this was a matter not worth pursuing. There was no way Regulus liked Emmy, none at all. It wasn't even as if they would talk – he was a fifth-year Slytherin and she a sixth-year Gryffindor. The odds of it were highly unlikely.

"The best looking Quidditch player ever is Sam McAvoy," Mary said dreamily, her mind flitting back to the poster of him she had up in her bedroom at home. He was tall, blonde, toned and had large dark eyes.

"What about Ludovic Bagman, though?" Aretha pointed out. He was the Beater for the Wimbourne Wasps, and was a bit of a pretty boy. His face was frequently splashed across the cover of _Witch Weekly_, accompanied with regular interviews that seemed to portray him as a joker but also somebody who knew they were attractive.

"Do you know who is the _sexiest _Quidditch player _ever_?" Sirius interjected, turning his thoughts away from the possibility that Regulus had rapaciously developed a crush on Emmy, and joining in with the girls' slightly shallow but rather enjoyable conversation.

"Who?" Emmy asked, expecting Sirius to mention one of the Holyhead Harpies or something.

"Yours truly," he grinned enthrallingly, a glorious smile plastered onto his sculpted face.

"Hmmn... Yours Truly? Can't say I've ever heard of him," Emmy smiled impishly, and Sirius chuckled.

"You do know how to wound a man," he said, clutching his heart histrionically and pretending to cry into his dinner.

"I wasn't aware there were any men here," Emmy added, and the girls began to laugh wildly with her. Lily and Mary agreed with Aretha that Emmy was immensely likeable and funny, and was somebody they imagined getting along with very well.

Sirius and James quickly forgot these remarks when pudding appeared and they piled their plates high with about six different types of cake, then drowned them all in a mixture of custard, brandy sauce and cream.

"That is vile," Aretha commented when she saw the two boys fervently tucking into the gooey mess in front of them.

"Nehshnytsnut," Sirius gabbled in between gobbling up the cake in front of him.

"Sorry, _what_?" Mary said incredulously. "We don't speak Stuffing-Our-Faces-With-Cake language."

"Although you are both fluent speakers," Aretha quipped.

"I said," Sirius said, pausing between bites, "no it's not."

"It's not what?" a puzzled James asked.

"Have you not been keeping track of the conversation, Prongs?" Sirius asked despairingly.

"No, sorry, Pads."

"It's quite alright Prongs, but in future, _pay attention_."

"Okay, Pads, it won't happen again."

"Good."

"Excellent."

"Spiffing."

"Corking."

"Cracking."

"Tremendous."

"Marvellous!"

"Splendid!"

"Alright, boys," Emmy stopped them, "stop trying to out-adjective each other!"

"It's just how we roll," Sirius grinned, finishing off his cake and leaning back to look up the table. Everybody was nearly finished, so it was nearly time to head back up to the common room and get some sleep – or, rather, in the Marauders' case, start causing mischief. They had to get an early start on the year otherwise they would lose their reputation as Hogwarts' supreme pranksters.

The little first-years gulped when they heard they had to go and find their common rooms when the prefects jumped up to take them (this meant Lily and Remus had to go and take the Gryffindors, leaving Mary and Aretha with Emmy and the rest of the Marauders) as the sheer size of the castle was so intimidating. Even Emmy, at five years older than then, found the castle daunting – but fascinating. It was much more enchanting than her old school, which had looked just like a normal Muggle high school, to be honest. This was palatial and, as she followed her friends through the corridors, labyrinthine. She barely had time to give Caitlin a quick wave before leaving to go to her new room and common room – according to Sirius, who was standing next to her and casually chatting with her as they left the Great Hall, the Gryffindor common room was in a tower, as was the Ravenclaw (but at opposite ends of the castle), the Hufflepuff common room was near the kitchen and the Slytherin common room in the dungeons.

The moving staircases took Emmy by surprise – Sirius had to grab her as she almost walked off the end of one whilst it was in motion, not realising they were moving.

"Be careful, the staircases like to change!" she heard Lily call to the assembled group of little first-years following her and Remus obediently.

"There's just more and more magic around every corner," she muttered to herself, in awe of the place that was to now become her home, after the Potters'. She couldn't fail to notice the big grins that had made their way onto the Marauders' faces – it was as if, for them, coming back to Hogwarts was like coming home.

The first-years scurried after Lily and Remus as they strode purposefully up a corridor after disembarking a staircase in the direction of a portrait. Upon closer inspection, the portrait was of a very fat lady, holding a wine glass, grinning at the approaching students. She had poured her rather generous figure into a dusky pink satin dress and her hair was elaborately curled and adorned with pearls. Behind her was a background of a beautiful garden, and she was sat against a stone column.

"Password?" she demanded excitedly, having been inactive for a couple of months.

"Polyjuice Potion," Remus said, loudly and clearly, and the first-years quickly took note of the password required to get in.

"Indeed," the lady agreed, before swinging open and admitting them inside. A short stone corridor soon opened up into a large and cosy room, with a roaring fire, decorated in red and gold. There were large oak tables scattered around the room, with velvet settees and arm chairs, bookshelves and small tables in between. Portraits decorated the walls, with the little first-years frequently offering opinions of "Wow!", "He just moved!", "She's waving at me!" and "Things aren't like this back home!"

The Marauders quickly sat themselves down in the seats right by the fire. Sirius moved up to make room for Emmy, who sat down in the middle of the large crimson velvet sofa, with Mary sitting on her other side. James sprawled himself across one whole settee, trying to break the Marauder record for how many chairs one of them could occupy at once, Peter perched himself on the coffee table and Aretha sat herself in one of the armchairs, taking out her copy of _Witch Weekly_.

"The boys' dormitories are on the left, and girls, the same on your right," Lily informed the first-years.

"And boys can't go into girls' dorms, the stairs turn into a slide!" Sirius called over his shoulder.

"Really?" a particularly tiny boy gasped.

"Yep," Sirius smiled, "but we know how to get past it."

"Ooh how?" the boy asked, but Lily swiftly interrupted them. She didn't want any mini-Marauders running around, after all!

"The first-year rooms are through the first door you'll come to when you go up the stairs – there's a bathroom in there as well. Have fun, and if you have any questions, come and ask me or Remus here," she said kindly, and the first-years thundered up the stairs, intent on seeing what their rooms looked like.

"I'm exhausted!" Lily sighed, moving James' legs off half of the sofa he was lying across and sitting herself down. Remus sat on the floor, resting his feet on the coffee table and reading the Quidditch scores in the _Daily Prophet_.

"I can imagine, I bet they can be quite a handful!" Emmy said, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling.

"Not as much as these four here," Mary commented, "they must have broken virtually every school rule in the book!"

"Actually," Sirius pointed out, "that's quite an achievement, considering there are seven thousand, four hundred and twenty-three rules."

"How _do_ you know that?" Emmy said disbelievingly.

"We looked them up in the library in our first year and have put an ink mark by all the ones we've broken. I think we are up to..." Sirius said thoughtfully, but was interrupted by Remus.

"Five thousand, eight hundred and sixty-seven," he provided.

"Bloody Merlin!" Aretha cursed, much to the amusement of everybody else present. "That's some serious rule-breaking!"

"It's why you all love us!" James declared, sneakily attempting to position his arm around Lily's shoulders. Unfortunately for him, she wasn't having it and lifted it off straight away, grinning to herself.

"I am so tired," Mary said, curling up slightly on her chair and resting her head on her hands.

"Maybe we should go to bed," Aretha suggested, and the other girls agreed.

"No, girls, you can't go now! The party was just getting started!" Sirius called after them.

"What party?" Aretha said cheekily as they disappeared up the staircase. Their bedroom was virtually at the top of the tower, offering spectacular views of the Hogwarts grounds, which Sirius had already promised Emmy and Caitlin he was going to give them a spectacular tour of.

As Emmy took her bed – right by the largest window – she quickly changed into some blue flowery pyjamas and tied her hair back in a messy bun to keep it out of her face. She hoped that Caitlin was okay, had quickly made some friends and that the girls she was sharing her dormitory with were nice.

The girls had intended that, on the first night, they were going to stay up to ridiculous o'clock talking – perhaps resuming their conversation about hot Quidditch players – but as soon as their heads hit the pillows, they fell fast asleep, dreaming peacefully of the year to come.

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I hope you liked it! I promise the wait for an update won't be as long this time :) Please review and thank you for reading, love and hugs,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	12. An Elixir To Induce Euphoria

_**Bad Romance**_

**By Lily Orange**

**A/N: **Sorry again about the long wait, hopefully now it should be a chapter a week or more often because I am currently writing chapter 16, so I am a bit ahead and have the rest of the story planned so know what I should be writing :) Thank you to everybody who reviewed: EllieBaby, Fat Turtles Incorporated (thanks for the multiple reviews!), RoxyBabyX, Squid7000, MissCharstar, Jashinist-Werewolf, sarlovesoccer, evershort (thanks for the multiple reviews!), , ., spannieren, SweetieCherrie and Stina Whatever; thank you to everybody who added to their favourites: RoxyBabyX, evershort, Fat Turtles Incorporated and Fireminess; and thank you to everybody who added to their alerts: The Fool Arcana, evershort, RoxyBabyX, feathers789 and ProudoftheUSA. Thank you so much for your continuing support, I'm glad you're enjoying the story.

Plus I have a new story up, **Every Rose Has Its Thorn**, so please give it a read if you can, I'd love to know what you think of it :) and I posted the last chapter of **The Love Guru **earlier :'( I hope you like it, and like this! Have a great week!

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Chapter Twelve

**_An Elixir To Induce Euphoria_**

At half past seven the following morning, the Marauders, Lily, Aretha and Emmy were sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, filling their stomachs to the delicious food on the table in front of them. Emmy couldn't comprehend how good the cooking was at Hogwarts – she thought Dorea's food was good, but this was in a league of its own. She was already tucking into her fifth piece of toast, buttered and covered with liberal amounts of raspberry jam – she was addicted to it. Beside her, Sirius was on his second sandwich (bearing in mind his sandwich consisted of a bit of everything within a metre radius of him on the table between two thick slices of crusty bread) and was concurrently trying to talk whilst eating it, which wasn't the most attractive sight.

Emmy was sure David Essex and Robert Redford didn't eat whilst trying to talk.

"Ihypwihavsfinlyzomext," Sirius said – unfortunately, what he was trying to say was obscured by the food that was currently in his mouth and on view to the whole of the table.

"Me too," Remus agreed – he was used to Sirius' slightly haphazard table manners by now.

"You can understand him?" Lily said in shock, putting her own spoon down in her empty cereal bowl.

"It's easy once you learn how," Remus shrugged whilst Sirius grinned goofily.

"Put the food away!" Aretha begged, but Sirius just continued to grin.

"What did he say then?" Lily questioned him, intrigued as to how Remus had learnt to understand Sirius-eating-like-a-pig-and-talking-at-the-same-time language. It wasn't in the curriculum.

"He said, 'I hope we have a fun lesson next'," Remus translated. Sirius continued to grin, exhibiting the chewed up remains of half of his sandwich.

"Please, please, _please _in the name of MERLIN put that food away and close your mouth!" Aretha whined, averting her eyes from the rather disgusting sight before her.

"Maybe you should try reverse psychology," Emmy suggested. She turned to Sirius and tried to ignore the horrible mess inside his mouth. "Sirius, don't shut your mouth, we're having so much fun looking at it!"

"Plus Snivellus'll want it, now it's all greased up in your gob," James added rather unkindly. Sirius promptly shut his mouth and swallowed it all down in one big gulp.

"That was not a pleasant thought, Prongs," Sirius shuddered, pouring a whole jug of water down his throat.

"What's reverse psychology?" Peter asked in confusion.

"It's when you want someone to do something so you tell them to do the opposite, i.e. not to do it, so then they'll do it anyway," Emmy answered. He looked at her blankly, his watery blue eyes glazed over as if she was talking Swahili or something. "For example," she added, trying to help the slightly less academic boy to understand, "if I told Sirius not to pour the bowl of cereal over his head, he may do it just to be funny."

"Why would he want cereal in his hair?" Peter said, wrinkling his nose comically.

"It was just an example!" Aretha supplied, shaking her head. She got rather impatient with Peter – Lily helped him and was kind to him but Aretha found him annoyingly slow.

"Oh, right, I'll take your word for it, then," Peter replied, pouring himself another glass of pumpkin juice.

"Ooh, here comes the beautiful Professor McGonagall, my ideal woman!" Sirius winked as said Professor came down from the teachers' table to give out timetables to everybody.

"She's your ideal woman?" Aretha said slowly.

"She's the woman I'm going to marry!" Sirius beamed at them all before turning to his favourite teacher. "Good morning Professor, don't you look ravishing today?"

"Thank you, Mr Black," Professor McGonagall replied monotonously. "I see you are starting early with your charming this year. Here's your timetable."

"NO!" Sirius bellowed in disappointment as he read what lesson he had first.

"Black, what is the cause for yelling in the Great Hall?" Professor McGonagall barked, turning to look at the rather alarmed first years. To be fair, they had cause to be alarmed – Sirius was banging his head on the table repeatedly and cursing as he lifted his head up. To an outsider, it could have looked like Sirius was partially insane. To the people sat beside him and the Head of Gryffindor House, it was his usual theatrical behaviour and they waited patiently for him to stop.

"I have Potions first!" he moaned.

"You wanted to pick it," Professor McGonagall said, passing timetables to James, Remus and Peter.

"Can't you change it? As I complimented you so nicely this morning?" Sirius asked, batting his eyelashes, which were anomalously long for a boy.

"No, Black, I can't. Miss Piper–" McGonagall began, about to explain the new timetable to Emmy, but Sirius interrupted.

"BUT I CALLED YOU RAVISHING!" he yelled, even louder than before.

"Flattery gets you nowhere, Black," McGonagall replied curtly as everybody in the hall tried to stop themselves from laughing. James looked like his eyes were going to pop out of his skull he was crying and suppressing his laughter so much.

"Hmmph," Sirius snorted and went back to his sandwich.

"As I was saying, Miss Piper, first you have Potions, then a free, then Transfiguration, then Defence Against The Dark Arts, then Charms, then another free, then Ancient Rune and then this evening you have Astronomy," Professor McGonagall explained. "I'm sure your new friends can show you where everything is, but if you have any problems, don't hesitate to come and speak with me."

"Thanks, Professor," Emmy smiled appreciatively before pocketing her timetable. Professor McGonagall's lips curved slightly at the edges, almost as if she was smiling, but not quite. She hurried on to pass out timetables to the rest of her house, leaving the sixth-years to finish up their breakfasts and get to their first lesson, the aforementioned Potions class.

"I don't see what's so wrong with Potions," Lily commented as she finished off her goblet of hot chocolate, which, though only eight in the morning, had half a dozen marshmallows floating in the top of it along with chocolate sprinkles, "it's a great lesson."

"Ha! That's because Professor Slughorn loves you, Lily!" Sirius smirked, pondering whether or not he could quickly eat another of his breakfast sandwiches in the forty seconds they had before they needed to leave the Great Hall. He decided he could, and rapaciously began to pile everything on his plate and stuck it all together arbitrarily before shoving it in his mouth. This time, the girls, even Aretha, ignored his lack of table manners and carried on as if he wasn't doing anything out of the ordinary.

To be fair, in Sirius' case, he wasn't.

"He does _not_!" she protested indignantly, crossing her arms and harrumphing at them in annoyance.

"He does, Lil, he does," Aretha grinned impishly.

"It's, 'Ooh, Miss Evans, what a fantastic potion this is!' and 'Everybody, look at the superb concoction Miss Evans has made!' and 'I wish every student that I taught was just like Miss Evans!'" James piped up, in an impression so accurate of the Potions Master's appraisals of Lily that she couldn't help but laugh.

"Ooh – and can't forget, 'Miss Evans has DONE IT!'" Sirius barked, also in a horrifically perfect impression that left his friends falling about with laughter.

"Doing what, though?" Remus quipped, waggling his eyebrows in a suggestive manner.

"Shut up!" Lily cried through gulps of laughter, whacking him with her rather heavy bag.

"Lily Sluggy... has a ring to it, doesn't it?" Sirius added thoughtfully, before diving out of his seat and rolling down the aisle between the tables to avoid the wrath of Lily's bag and her surprisingly good aim.

Once Lily had managed to stop them from calling her Mrs Sluggy, they followed Sirius in the direction of the dungeons to get to their potions lab. As expected, their rotund, slightly balding but jolly teacher was waiting at the door to let them it.

"Ah, Miss Evans, did you have a good summer?" he babbled. "I hope you had some practice of your Potions – top marks on your OWL exam!"

"Thank you, Sir, I did," she said cordially before taking a seat beside Aretha.

"Ah – Miss Evans, for the next few weeks we are going to be working in groups on the Elixir to Induce Euphoria. I have selected the groups and these are the groups you shall be working in until the beginning of October," he informed them as he sat himself behind his desk. All of the students had now arrived – there were a few Slytherins (Severus Snape being one of them – he gave the Gryffindors a cold glare before resting his eyes on Lily and attempting to bestow her with a shy smile, but she turned away, not having forgotten what happened before the summer), one Hufflepuff and two Ravenclaws; the majority of the class was actually made up of Gryffindors. Lily, Aretha, Sirius, James, Remus, Peter (who had managed to scrape an E in his Potions OWL with hours and hours and hours of revision crammed late into the night, aided mostly by Remus, but the other Marauders took shift in helping their slightly unfortunate friend also) and Mary, who had scuttled in after she and her boyfriend Claude, who had a free period, had prised themselves apart from a particularly steamy clinch just around the corner from the classroom. Her dark hair was tousled and she was rather pink in the face, which made Lily, Aretha and Emmy exchange amused glances.

"Please, dear Merlin, make him have put me with Lily!" James whispered to himself, looking up at the ceiling angelically.

"So these are going to be your partners, who I expect you to work well with and to at least be civil to each other even if you strongly dislike each other, do you understand?" Professor Slughorn reminded them, eyeing the Gryffindors (particularly the Marauders) and the Slytherins pointedly, both of whom tried to look completely innocent. Everybody nodded.

"Right then: Aretha Jessop and Edmund Mulciber" – Aretha groaned as she had to move to sit by a really ugly Slytherin boy with a leering face, who was really creepy and had really beady, lifeless eyes – "Autumn Timmins and Peter Pettigrew" –Peter couldn't believe his luck that he had been placed with a Ravenclaw, and Autumn mentally lambasted the professor for partnering her with such an unscholarly person – "Frederick Avery and Penelope Johnson" – another unfortunate-looking Slytherin boy moved to sit by the pretty Ravenclaw, who looked slightly bored by this whole exercise and ready to move onto the actual potion making – "Mary MacDonald and Remus Lupin" – the two Gryffindors breathed a sigh of relief and moved next to each other, grinning broadly at their fortune – "Rosanna Ingram and Severus Snape" – the smiley and pleasant blonde girl skipped her way across the classroom to sit by her polar opposite, the dark and dismal boy who showed her no recognition – "Lily Evans and James Potter" – Lily almost fell off her stool in alarm as she heard this and James did a little victory dance as he plonked himself down on the stool beside her, having been recently vacated by Aretha; their Professor refused to listen to Lily's ardent protestations – "and that leaves us with Sirius Black and our new student, Emmanuelle Piper!" he said excitedly.

"Just Emmy, please, sir," Emmy said warmly as she moved by Sirius, who was grinning at her cheerfully.

"Very well," he smiled. "Turn to page forty-three where you will find the instructions to make the Elixir to Induce Euphoria, and complete steps one to twelve – after that it shall need to stew for a few weeks."

Lily was trying to sit as far away from James as possible as he eagerly started chopping up the Castor Beans, but hastened to correct his technique when they started to fly off the table in his excitement.

Emmy quickly got to work, cutting up the shrivelfigs and adding it to the wormwood already in the heated cauldron as Sirius (correctly) chopped up the Castor Beans. When Professor Slughorn walked past half an hour later, they had already completed steps one through eleven and were just adding the Porcupine Quills before stirring five times counter-clockwise. He stopped to scrutinise their potion and found it the perfect shade of buttercup yellow.

"Miss Piper, you are a _natural _at this subject!" he praised her excessively whilst she blushed.

"It was Sirius as well–" she started to say, but was interrupted by the professor.

"Absolutely extraordinary! Miss Evans, come and look at this!" he called to his favourite student. Lily looked up, her hair full of porcupine quills after she had wrestled James to stop him from adding them hastily at step five, and her face bright scarlet in anger at her overzealous potions partner.

"It's excellent, Emmy," she commended her new friend after peering into the simmering cauldron.

"Well, Miss Piper, I have a little club... it is for extremely talented students who I believe could really make something of themselves in the future and have incredibly potential. We meet sometimes, for dinner – Miss Evans comes along, don't you, Miss Evans, and she quite enjoys it!" he smiled jovially. Lily nodded through gritted teeth as she repeatedly hit James with their potions textbook. "You should come along, Miss Piper, it would be brilliant for you!" he added before rushing over to stop Lily from savagely decapitating James.

_

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Thank you for reading - hope you liked it, please review! And don't forget to check out Every Rose Has Its Thorn! Have a great week,

:) x Lily Orange x (:


	13. News From Home

**Bad Romance**

_**By Lily Orange**_

**A/N: **Sorry about the quickness of this, will properly thank everybody next chapter. Hope you like this... it's a little sombre but we're catching up with Emmy! Please review, thanks for reading, :) x Lily Orange x (:

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**Chapter Thirteen**

**_News From Home_**

It was in Emmy's first free period that she managed to catch up with Caitlin for the first time since their separation the night before. Whilst Sirius and James had been planning a big prank in the Gryffindor common room, she had decided to take a stroll down to the library to check out the books in there – Lily had described it as "cavernous" and Emmy knew she couldn't miss a chance to go and look at such a huge collection of books.

She wandered in, loosening her red-and-gold striped tie slightly at her neck as she did so. The librarian, a particularly intimidating woman called Madam Pince (Aretha, Lily and Mary had filled her in on the names of all the Hogwarts staff) eyed her with suspicion, as if she was going to throw all the books around and stamp on them in a rage. Which, obviously, being the bookworm she was, it wasn't possible for her to do so.

She skimmed the shelves dreamily, having avoided homework during her Potions class due to their excellent progress with the Potion. Peter had managed to explode Autumn's cauldron, which she wasn't too happy about – plus there was the small issue that the wrongly-concocted potion had left a bald patch at the front of Peter's head and had _completely _vanished Autumn's hair, so she was up in the Hospital Wing with Madam Pomfrey having her hair re-grown speedily in time for her next class.

James had succeeded in annoying Lily every which way possible (something he had refined to an absolute art over his years of pursuing her relentlessly) during the course of the lesson, but had escaped with his head still intact after Professor Slughorn had confiscated Lily's textbooks and handing her a copy of the page, which she couldn't do much damage to James with, unfortunately. He had managed, single-handedly, throughout the hour of their Potions lesson, to get porcupine quills in her hair during their mini-wrestling match, squeeze a Castor Bean with so much force it shot into the middle of Lily's throbbing forehead, knocked over the cauldron with his enthusiastic hand movements and had burned a hole in the toe of Lily's brand new Mary Jane shoes with the slightly acidic potion (acidic as it had not yet had the quills or beans added). All in all, he reviewed it as a pretty spectacular lesson, even though he had annoyed the hell out of Lily and she was now sat in her History of Magic lesson cursing his very being.

Remus and Mary had eventually made a flawless potion, both of them being academic and dedicated to their studies, even if Mary rushed off as soon as the bell went to find Claude before he had to go to his first class of the new school year. Emmy had now at least _seen _Claude, even if she hadn't yet spoken to him. He was a reasonably tall boy, about six foot, perhaps, with curly fair hair and smiling brown eyes. He contrasted well with Mary, who was very petite, with dark straight hair and pale, ice blue eyes.

Just as Emmy was about to pull out a volume about dragon-keeping from the shelves (it was an interesting subject!) she spotted a familiar girl sitting at a nearby table, writing on a piece of excruciatingly long parchment in cramped handwriting.

"Caitlin!" Emmy exclaimed – but in a whisper, as she had heeded Lily's warning about the rather demented librarian and didn't wish to be in her bad books already. Her beloved cousin looked up, and smiled weakly at her. Emmy was used to Caitlin's weak smiles – they used to be wide and stunning grins that captured the heart of any boy within a five mile radius.

Caitlin was as stunning as ever, but she was looking a little melancholy.

"Hi Emmy," she greeted her, and Emmy slid into the chair next to her.

"What's wrong?" she asked in concern.

"I've had a letter from Tom," Caitlin answered, "and they've sorted out Mum and Dad's funeral. It's at the weekend."

"I still can't believe their gone," Emmy said mournfully as Caitlin pushed the letter from Tom towards her.

"I know," she sniffed. Emmy picked up the letter and Caitlin carried on composing her reply. It was already very long and very detailed, but Emmy supposed that Tom expected no less. Caitlin always used to be very brief in her letter-writing, but now she was highly thoughtful and more silent, so she supposed letter-writing was a way of documenting her own thoughts and feelings for another person to read.

_Dear Caitlin, _she read,

_It's been seriously lonely here without you. I know I tell you this every single time I write, which can be more than once a day sometimes, but I truly mean it. I miss you so much – walking down the corridors at school I no longer have much to look forward to, as most of the things I anticipated were to do with seeing you. Even if it was just seeing your hair whirling around a corner ahead of me, it made me cheerful. So hopefully I'll see you soon._

_Mum and Dad wanted me to tell you and Emmy that they have sorted out the funeral plans. It's on Saturday at three – and you and Emmy can deliver eulogies if you wish. It's up to you, it's a celebration of your parents' lives, and you knew them best out of everybody. You don't have to make a decision right away, Caitlin, don't worry about it. _

_My Mum has written to your Headmaster, Professor Dumbledore, who has given you permission to take a portkey to our house on Saturday morning, and return on Sunday afternoon. Obviously bring Emmy, but bring the Potters and the other boy, Sirius, who you told me about. I'd like to meet the people who have looked after you so well while I haven't been able. I want to be there, helping you every step of the way, holding your hand. I know it's not possible but our imaginations are there to help us when we want to be with somebody else. When I close my eyes I imagine I am with you, comforting you and drying your tears. Nothing would give me a greater pleasure than doing that for you, Caitlin. I promise you I will always be there for you. _

Emmy stopped there, as then Tom went on to describe his past few days at school (their old school had gone back a few days before the end of August to settle back into doing the required workload again) and to give Caitlin more of his love and encouragement.

"Would you like to deliver a eulogy?" Emmy asked timidly. Caitlin looked up, tears glistening in her eyes as she nodded slowly. Emmy hugged her for a few minutes, before Caitlin told her to go and have some fun. Emmy didn't know how she could have much fun after just being greeted with the news of her aunt and uncle's coming funeral, but she wanted to make her cousin happy, so did as she was told.

Emmy was fascinated with Hogwarts. Everything was completely magical and unexpected – the stairs, the moving portraits, the teachers, the corridors... just every single part of it made it absolutely spectacular. She was trundling down a corridor that ran around the outside of a courtyard, and she could see a few sixth and seventh years lying on the grass and reading textbooks and chatting. She recognised a few people – there was Rosanna Ingram, the really kind girl in her Potions class who seemed to skip everywhere. Her long blonde hair was tied in a loose plait that she had pulled to one side down her shoulder, and her brow was furrowed in concentration as she stared at the magazine in front of her. She seemed, unless Emmy was mistaken, to be reading it the wrong way round. Rosanna didn't seem affected by Severus Snape's hostility in the lesson. He had made it quite clear that he thought her weird and barely spoke to her apart from barking instructions in her general direction.

He was a strange boy.

Professor Slughorn seemed to have taken a liking to her – he had invited her to come for a little dinner the following week, if she would like to. Emmy accepted – it was so different to her previous school and she intended to grasp every opportunity given to her.

"Ah, Emmy!" Sirius yelled up the corridor. He and James looked as if they had been running as Emmy turned round to look at them. They were both grinning lopsidedly, clutching their wands and James seemed to be holding a very large piece of parchment.

"What are you two doing?" Emmy asked with mock seriousness.

"Nothing," Sirius said, whistling innocently.

"That's slightly hard to believe," she said, but then frowned. It was hard to keep up a happy, upbeat pretence when such a thing was coming just at the weekend. It was... surreal. That was what it was.

So far, Emmy hadn't really cried, apart from when it happened. She had made herself feel better, using Tom's wise words as her mantra every morning when she got up, feeling alone in the world. She had Caitlin. Now she had Charlie, Dorea, James and Sirius too.

It didn't stop the tears from falling thick and fast from her moist violet eyes though – she sobbed and sobbed, running up the corridor away from Sirius and James, who were frantically calling after her. She sprinted towards the Gryffindor tower, gasped out the password and hurtled up the stairs and threw herself on her bed. She could hear the boys calling up the stairs... there was nobody in their room now, as they had gone early for their next lesson.

After ten minutes, she knew it was nearly time for her to leave for her first Transfiguration lesson of the year, and she didn't want to miss it. She wiped away the tears, splashed some water on her red face and picked up her bag.

She was going to be strong. She had to be.


	14. And I Will Always Love You

Chapter Fourteen

_And I Will Always Love You_

The weather seemed to mirror the mournful mood that was rife in the air that morning. It was raining heavily, the water falling down mercilessly in droves. Emmy watched it beat against the window of her dorm room, her eyes dry and her spirits low. She hugged her knees comfortingly as she thought of the day to come.

She had been unable to sleep, so had whiled away the hours staring out of the window, watching the murky shadows dance in the rain outside. Lily, Aretha and Mary were sound asleep, probably dreaming sweet things. Emmy could only keep replaying what happened that day in her mind. It haunted her constantly – the hopeless look etched on her auntie's face would stay with her for the rest of her life.

The clock chimed faintly; she turned to look at it. The face was luminous in the darkness and declared to her that the time was half past six. She tipped her head back and groaned. She hadn't been able to cry since in her free lesson a few days before, when she had suddenly run away. All of her tears seemed to have gone away now. It was strange.

A faint scuffling sound alerted her to another's presence. She looked around to see a male form standing at the door in shadow. Subconsciously she backed up against the window, her pale arms still wrapped around her legs, warming herself in the cold window.

"Emmy... is that you?" he asked – she could quickly tell that it was Sirius. When he stepped further into the room, Emmy could see him a lot better as it was beginning to go light outside – so they were no longer in the blackness Emmy had been in all night, but deep grey.

She sniffed in response, and he took it as invitation to sit opposite her in the window sill. She didn't mind – Lily and the others showed no sign of stirring and it would soon be time for Mary to get up and go and find Claude.

"It'll be fine," he promised her, squeezing her arm comfortingly.

"It's not me I'm worried about, it's Caitlin," she confided quietly, glancing once more out of the window, the view obscured by the relentless rain.

"She'll be fine – she's with us," he reminded her, following her gaze and focussing his own eyes on the outside world.

"But I've been in a house with you these past few days, she hasn't!" Emmy persisted. "I had friends ready made... she didn't. She's had to make completely new ones."

"People have been friendly towards her and she seems to have made plenty of friends," Sirius answered.

"Yeah, she's had boys _queuing _up to be friends with her," Emmy smiled sadly.

"It's better than nothing," Sirius pointed out, "at least they'll be protective of her. And I saw her walking to one of her classes with Autumn Timmins, she's a nice girl."

"But unfortunate to have ended up with Peter as a Potions partner," Emmy spluttered.

"She did look better once the hair had grown back," Sirius laughed quietly. "See? She's coping fine. This weekend is going to be difficult for her – for the both of you – but she's going to be seeing Tom, right? And Tom will look after her."

"Tom looks after her from a billion miles away," Emmy added.

"He sure does. Now, do you want me to leave you in peace so you can get dressed? We're meeting Caitlin by the Ravenclaw tower in half an hour so she doesn't have to walk by herself," Sirius said. He quickly embraced her before leaving the room.

Finding herself comforted by Sirius' words, she quickly dressed herself in a blue skirt and a cream lace blouse – her aunt and uncle had written in their will that they didn't want anybody to be dressed in black at their funeral. It was too sombre a colour, apparently. Emmy ignored the part of her brain that was telling her it was a sombre occasion and picked up the bag she had packed the day before, containing her pyjamas and clothes for the next day.

When she exited the dorm and went down the stairs into the common room, she saw James and Sirius waiting for her, both dressed in suits – but not black. Sirius was wearing a suit of navy blue and James a deep green suit which made his hazel eyes look more green than brown.

"Would it be inappropriate of me to say you look nice?" James asked. Emmy shook her head, smiling meekly. "'Cause you do."

"Thanks," she murmured, "shall we go get Caitlin?"

Emmy dreaded to think what sort of state Caitlin would be in. Caitlin was always the more dramatic of the two, with a large, singing and dancing personality that lit up any room within seconds. Now she was slightly more reserved... and, though Emmy complained about some of her cousin's traits before, such as her exhibitionist tendencies and her overly flirtatious ways, she kind of missed them. She wanted Caitlin to be back to how she was before – independent, vivacious and playful. Maybe saying a proper goodbye to her parents would give her closure, and the freedom to regain her old personality, knowing her parents would still love her no matter what.

They walked silently through the corridors of Hogwarts, Emmy walking in the middle of the two boys, who towered over her comfortingly. Nobody else was up, and the sky outside was still a murky grey colour that seemed to poignantly echo the mood of the day. They followed the labyrinthine passages with ease, knowing exactly where to turn and where to carry on. Eventually, they found themselves by the Ravenclaw tower, being solemnly greeted by Caitlin, who, though she had dark circles under her eyes, she still looked radiant. It was also quite evident that she hadn't been crying – at all. Her face was dry and her olive eyes weren't red or puffy, just sad-looking.

"Are you ready?" Emmy asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"As ready as I'll ever be," Caitlin replied boldly, standing up and approaching them wilfully.

The silence continued; it covered the four teenagers like a blanket as they slowly meandered through the corridors, looking forward. They wandered down the staircases (taking special care not to fall off of a changing staircase – and, in Sirius and James' case, not to try and jump off the changing staircase and land on one six floors below in a moment of daring, as they had done frequently before) until they reached the Transfiguration courtyard, which they crossed to enter the stone hallway which led to Professor McGonagall's office, from which they were taking the portkey.

The moving portraits followed them with their eyes – a wizened man with jovial lilac hair and blue eyebrows, both of which were standing on end as if an explosion had taken place (his portrait label described him as Barnabus Stigg, Experimental Potioneer) waved at them cheerily as they passed and a young girl dressed in a champagne-coloured dress with a wreath of roses on top of her head, weaved into the golden ringlets which curled beatifically down to her shoulders, curtsied politely. She blushed as Sirius averted his eyes from staring ahead to give her a small smile – as though she was merely a portrait, she was technically a fifteen-year-old girl who was rather susceptible to any form of male attention. Her name was Arabella Kingston, and she had been the daughter of the legendary warlock explorer, Christophe Kingston, who was so protective of her that he shielded her from any male eyes until her fifteenth birthday, upon which she captivated the heart of every man present and then died because of the shock of it all.

Sirius smirked as they walked on, Arabella following him through the portraits, skipping happily and stopping suddenly if he looked round. He could even charm the portraits.

Professor McGonagall's office soon came into view – the door was flanked by flickering candles that cast an orange glow over the lightening corridor. James knocked and the door was quickly opened by McGonagall herself. Her lips curved into a sad smile as she ushered them in.

"Good morning," she said quietly as the teenagers assembled in.

"Morning Prof– Mum, Dad?" James gasped. Charlie and Dorea Potter got up from the velvet armchairs by the fire (not dissimilar to the ones in the Gryffindor common room) and smiled at their son – and the three other teenagers who were like their three other children.

"We thought we'd get the portkey with you," Charlie explained as Dorea hugged all of her brood lovingly, "so you didn't have to go by yourselves."

"It goes straight to the cemetery, my dear," Dorea whispered to Caitlin soothingly. She nodded and gave her a brief smile.

"It leaves in two minutes," Professor McGonagall informed them, gesturing to the cracked silver mirror that lay arbitrarily on top of a low bookshelf underneath the window.

"They'll be back tomorrow afternoon, Minerva," Charlie told the Head of Gryffindor House, and she nodded understandingly.

The mirror began to glow an ethereal shade of ice blue and the six people touched a finger to it. The felt the familiar but strange feeling of being pulled inwards, as if gravity was forcing them towards the mirror, and they were spinning uncomfortably. They felt weightless, as if they were flying... it didn't seem long before Charlie told them in an calm voice to let go of the mirror. They all did as they were told and felt as if they were freefalling, leaving earth and spinning into nothingness... but as they fell, the blurred pictures of the outside world came together and they could see the quaint graveyard, blooming flowers flourishing on random graves and the grass green as an emerald. They all stretched out their legs and finally felt the floor beneath their feet – they were now standing just outside of the graveyard where, in just an hour, Caitlin's parents, Emmy's aunt and uncle and Charlus and Dorea Potter's closest friends were to be buried.

It was going to be a long and hard day.

Caitlin didn't know why she wasn't crying. Her eyes felt completely dry as she stared at the wooden coffins either side of the hole dug into the ground, where her parents would soon be laid to rest. She had been crying for the past two weeks, but now ... it seemed that it had all stopped. That she could now _cope_.

"Caitlin, would you like to say a few words?"

She was suddenly snapped out of her reverie and she felt the eyes of all the people who had come to say goodbye to her mum and dad rest on her. Self-consciously, she nodded, and launched into what she wanted to say. This was important. She wanted to do her parents proud. She wanted them to know that she was proud of them and thought them the bravest people she knew – apart from Tom and Emmy, who just reacted so quickly on that day, and got her to safety. Emmy, who had struggled with the sight of what was going on inside the house, who coolly dragged her away and into Tom's garden. Tom, who had been her rock since what had happened. She wrote to him all the time, and he listened – or rather, read – and responded to her hopes and fears. He made her feel utterly complete.

"I haven't really prepared anything particular to say... but I know what I do want to say, if that makes sense," she said, shaking her head. The assembled people smiled solemnly.

"My parents, Steve and Gemma Piper, were the two most amazing people I ever knew. Even though they held such dark and dangerous jobs, they were always there for me, to teach me, to love me and to encourage me to reach for the stars and follow my dreams. You could say they were very special people. I want to share some stories with you, just quickly, to illustrate how special they actually were.

"They met at Hogwarts – they were both in Gryffindor, and both in opposing friendship groups that only spoke to each other if there was a prank war going on. They were the first to admit attraction and to start dating each other. I remember my mum telling me when I was about seven years old, after I asked her, what my dad did for the first Valentine's Day they shared together, when they were fifteen. She told me that he had taken her out to the lake at Hogwarts, sat under the oak tree with her, and presented her with his watch – which had stopped. She asked him why he was giving her a broken watch, of all things, and he replied, 'Time stopped the minute you said you loved me.' My mum wore his watch the rest of her life, and it was her wish that she was buried with it.

"One time, when I was probably five years old, and full of the flu, we realised that I had left my favourite picture book at our grandma's, bless her soul, when we had visited a fortnight previous her house in Australia. I was adamant the only thing that would make me better was that picture book – and my dad held my hand the whole time whilst my mum organised a portkey to my grandma's house so she could get my picture book.

"It was moments like these," Caitlin continued, her eyes still dry and her spirits strong, "that made me realise just how lucky I was to be their daughter and to have them as my parents. They were the two of the bravest people I know – the only other people who equate to them in bravery, who saved our lives the day my parents died, are my cousin Emmy, my closest friend Tom and Charlie and Dorea Potter. My parents didn't escape with their lives – but I know they are here with me, all the time, and I feel proud to have ever known them – and I will always, Mum, Dad; I will always love you." She positioned a long-stemmed rose on each of the coffins and nodded at Emmy.

"Now Emmanuelle would like to say something too," the priest said – and Emmy glanced at him irritably when he used her full name.

"As you may know," Emmy began, "my uncle Steve and auntie Gemma have looked after me since my parents died when I was five. They have treated me as their own daughter and I have wanted for nothing – they have showered me with the same love and attention they have shown to Caitlin and they hold a very special place in my heart. Firstly, because my uncle Steve always called me Emmy. Always. He corrected everybody for me whenever they called me Emmanuelle" – the priest reddened slightly as the mourners smiled – "and always told me his jokes. They were never very funny, but I found them funny, because it was he who told them to me – he was always funny and always made me feel better with his laughter.

"Secondly, because my auntie Gemma exhibited to me how to be a loving person and how to care for other people. That's what she did, and my uncle too. They cared for me and loved me. I feel honoured to be their niece – and I know that they will always, along with my own parents, be watching over me and Caitlin and looking out for us all of the time. Thank you, auntie Gemma and uncle Steve, for merely being there and loving me."

As Emmy and Caitlin finished, the grey clouds seemed to disappear and unleash the warm golden sunlight, the rays of which hit the coffins as they were lowered into the ground. Caitlin looked up to the sky – she knew. She knew that her parents were looking down on them now, and that the sun was because of them.


	15. In These Arms

**Bad Romance**

_**By Lily Orange**_

**A/N: **_I am so sorry about the month-long update! Hopefully it won't happen again as in 2 weeks I am free for the summer :) Thank you to everybody who reviewed and still has patience with this story! I also have an account on fictionpress now and have posted some poetry under the name "Lizzie in Wonderland" so if you want please go and review it cos I'd love to know what you think :)_

_For this chapter I'd reccommend listening to "In These Arms" by Bon Jovi, it inspired me when I was writing it!_

_Please review and thanks for reading xxx_

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**Chapter Fifteen**

**_In These Arms_**

The few hours that passed after the funeral flashed by in a blur for Caitlin and Emmy – being hugged repeatedly by people, kissed by relatives and having people give their sympathies, condolences and flowers had placed them in accepting stupors, in which everything seemed surreal. Coming back just rubbed salt into wounds which had almost healed, reopening them and hurting. Luckily, now, they had a safety net in which to fall – Charlus and Dorea, James and Sirius had stayed with them the whole time – and all of them could see the way Tom made Caitlin visibly light up, even if it was marginal at her parents' funeral. Everybody could see the way he made her feel more secure and less vulnerable – he was like her own guardian angel.

"It seems like a redundant question – but are you okay?" Sirius asked, handing Emmy a glass of Gillywater – she refused anything stronger, being it her aunt and uncle's funeral. Though technically it was a celebration of their life, and that was what they had done afterwards, discussing favourite memories and looking at photos, she didn't want to act the same way she did at a party. It seemed too disrespectful.

She smiled up at him half-heartedly as he sat down beside her on the swinging chair in Tom's back garden – it was peaceful and quiet, as everybody else was still inside.

"I suppose I am – the ones that love us never really leave us," she said, quoting again the mantra she had indoctrinated herself with, that comforted her, "and I think that my aunt and uncle, and my own parents, are looking down on me now."

Sirius could sense that her mood was lifting slightly, and he could probably insert a joke to make her more cheerful. "But they're probably shaking their fists at the hairy weirdo who seems to be sitting next to you," he grinned charmingly, and Emmy couldn't help but giggle.

"I wouldn't have thought so – they would probably be thankful that you look after me so well," she said earnestly, "plus, you're not _that _hairy."

"Oh, so I'm still a weirdo?" he teased.

"Yep," she replied, wrinkling her nose in amusement.

"Thought as much," he said, leaning back in the chair and relaxing slightly. Emmy mirrored him self-consciously, her ankles entwined.

"Caitlin seems to be better," Emmy remarked, gingerly sipping her Gillywater.

"That Tom seems nice," Sirius agreed, "he brings her to life."

"He is," Emmy nodded.

"And here they come now," Sirius observed. Out of the patio doors walked Tom, his tie undone slightly, leading Caitlin by the hand out into the garden. A half smile was etched onto her pretty face, and she had taken her hair down from earlier – it had been twisted up and clipped back with a jewelled hairclip, but now in was loose around her shoulders. She looked much softer – much more coping.

"I'm taking Caitlin to the tree house," Tom informed them, "so we can clear our heads. Not sure when we'll be back."

"Okay, just... be careful," Emmy said, her voice quietening towards the end. The two nodded reverently and wandered out of the gate at the bottom of the garden, Tom carefully latching it back behind him. The sound of the gate opening immediately provoked Emmy to flash back to that day...

"_Emmy, what's happening? What's going on in there?" Caitlin cried hysterically, refusing to be pulled over the fence. Tom leaped out of the tree and grabbed her, lifting her over it against her will. _

"_Death Eaters," was all Emmy could choke out as she clambered over the fence, grabbing Tom's offered hand. _

"_What?" Caitlin caterwauled. _

"_Be quiet, or they'll hear us," Tom said, suddenly taking charge. "Did your aunt and uncle manage to communicate a message?" he asked gently, turning to Emmy. _

"_Run," Emmy whispered. Tom nodded, and took both of their hands, and dragged them towards his back gate. He unlatched it and let them out into the woodland path behind. As he locked it behind him, Caitlin began to cry, tears coming out in soft sobs, and she was shivering underneath her blanket. _

"_Come, run alongside me," he said, and, with their hands still in his, they began to sprint along the path, weaving between the trees and jumping over fallen branches as if they had been meant to do it all of their lives. The two girls were crying at Tom determinedly led them, with a destination in mind._

Emmy determinedly shook her head. Though being back here, in Albania, sitting in the garden that neighboured her own, bought back countless memories, it also presented a form of medicine to heal her burning wounds – next door was their house, unoccupied, just as it was the day they left. She was sorely tempted to gracefully climb over the fence, wander through the garden and into the house, just to see it. Just to see what she had left, to have closure. She didn't seem as affected as Caitlin – she was, as previously proclaimed by herself, easily adaptable – but she was feeling guilty for not being as mournful as her cousin. Her aunt and uncle were the people who had rescued her after her own parents had died, who brought her up, giving her love and affection as any parent would. She adored and loved them, and would do forever and always.

"Emmy, you look like you're fighting a battle with yourself," Sirius commented, "are you sure you're alright?"

"Am I a bad person for not being as upset as Caitlin?" Emmy blurted out.

"About your uncle and aunt's deaths?" he clarified. She nodded, sipping more Gillywater and feeling the palms of her hands heat up, like they did when she felt nervous or afraid. "You were as upset as Caitlin, Emmy, just not as externally upset. You cope more – but are thoughtful and that is probably all you've been thinking about since it happened. In no way, shape or form are you a bad person."

"Will you take me next door? I mean – will you come with me?" Emmy requested pensively – she didn't know whether Sirius would find it weird.

"Yes," he said firmly – she liked the way he didn't question whether she would be able to go in the house or even step over the fence. He knew she would be fine – his optimism was infectious. They both stood up, leaving their glasses on the patio beside the swinging chair they had been sat on together.

There was no gate between Tom's garden and their own, so the only way round was to climb over the fence. Being so tall, Sirius lifted her over. She settled her ballet pump-clad feet into the slightly too-long grass. It was only a few weeks, but the garden had a slightly overgrown look about it. The flowers seemed to die with their tenders – the large red roses that had grown in abundance at the back were shrivelled up, as were the begonias and Flutterby bushes that flanked the patio.

As Sirius settled himself in the garden, Emmy noticed something at the back. Her chair that she had been sitting on, in the shade, was still there. Beside it were bruised, rotten apples – the remnants of her apple fight with Tom.

"It's not been disturbed at all," she told him, slowly walking towards the back door.

"Somebody should have kept the garden nice," he said fiercely.

"No – it's fine as it is. They would have wanted it to be left and to grow of its own accord," she replied.

"But – the flowers..." he gestured to the dying blooms that Emmy herself had just been examining with her violet eyes.

"They'll grow back in time," she said faithfully, fingering the petals of a forlorn-looking Flutterby bush.

Pushing open the door sent a chill down Emmy's spine. Sirius followed her into the house, into the kitchen – where her uncle's newspaper was still on the table, next to several recipe pages of _Witch Weekly _that her aunt had saved. The little details that she had forgotten seemed in a way to liberate her feelings of repressed sadness. She wanted to see her old bedroom, to gather up her old framed photos, to look inside the study and smell the beautiful aroma of books.

"Are you positive you want to go further?" Sirius asked concernedly. She nodded, and purposely walked into the living room. It was the only place that seemed to have been touched – it was pristine. The smashed glass and ornaments that Emmy knew had been there before were repaired and sitting where they always sat, on the mantelpiece and shelves.

"Shall we go upstairs?" she said brightly. She didn't want to linger in the room too long – though she was finding being in the house less upsetting than she had anticipated.

Her room was just as she'd left it – piles of books and magazines forming their own little table by her bed, her indigo cover messy and her bed unmade, shoes spilling off the shoe rack, pictures stuck up everywhere with a Permanent Sticking Charm. It reminded Sirius a little of his own room – pictures everywhere. However, in his room, there had been posters of Muggle bikini-clad models and motorbikes, photos of the Marauders and Gryffindor memorabilia – the more that could be squeezed onto the wall space available, the better! In Emmy's room, the posters were of the Beatles and the Kinks and the photos were of her and Emmy, plus people he didn't recognise, obviously her old school friends, and her aunt and uncle – and there was a framed one, on top of a pile of magazines, of a tiny little girl standing in the middle of a tall couple, both of whom were holding one of her hands. It was patent who the girl was – the plaited dark blonde hair, sparkling violet eyes and wide, toothy smile were so captivatingly Emmy's. The couple must have been her parents – both were quite slim and both had blonde hair. Her mother had Emmy's curious violet eyes, and her father had hazel ones. They were smiling too.

"My mum and dad," she said, leaning against his arm. "Two simply amazing people, like my aunt and uncle and James' mum and dad. All are in a league of their own, surpassing the stars and shooting for the sun – they mesmerize me in their goodness."

"I know the feeling," Sirius agreed, "Charlie and Dorea treat me like their second son. They make me feel wanted and loved – they, along with the Marauders, scream home for me."

"I want to keep this photo – I'll leave everything else, but this, I want to keep," Emmy said, grasping the silver photo frame and clutching it tightly.

"Are you ready to go back, Emmy, or do you want to look more?" Sirius asked quietly.

"I think I'm done," she smiled – this time a strong one. "Thank you for coming with me Sirius – it means a lot to me. I think I can finally feel accepting now."

"I'm glad," he said, squeezing her into a tight hug.

"Me too," she added, hugging him back.

The warm evening sunlight was glowing faintly through the trees as Tom and Caitlin lay in the tree house. Tom was comfortably lying diagonally across the floor, his head supported by one of his many cushions, and Caitlin's head was leaning on his chest, listening to his heartbeat. He was absentmindedly playing with a strand of Caitlin's hair, as they lay in silence.

"I can't believe I'm back here," Caitlin voiced her thoughts after a few minutes.

"Neither can I," Tom sighed, "it seemed forever since I last saw you, when... it happened..."

"You can say it Tom – you can say, 'When your parents died,'" she assured him, "I'm coping now, I'm accepting. It took me a while and drained my energy and other people's, but I'm okay now. You especially helped me."

"You're my friend... a very close friend... I wanted to help you," Tom said earnestly, thinking back to the innocent, laughter-filled summer they had been enjoying before the Pipers died. The way virtually every day, Caitlin would be out in the sunshine, begging Emmy to come with her, who would stubbornly sit in the shade. The scene was playing over in his head, making him smile. Then he remembered his own part in the composition – hiding in the tree. Bird-watching, so he told his parents. In a respect, it was true, but because of this his parents thought he had an insane interest in birds and had bought him many books on the subject, which were sitting in his cupboard.

School didn't seem the same without her – it was strange, her not being there. Of course everybody knew what had happened; secrets never stay secrets in schools. Tom refused to talk about it, and despite this had been questioned relentlessly by Caitlin and Emmy's friends, as well as his own. His friend Sean was complaining of him being distant and less into everything – Sean and his other friends had organised a little get together in an abandoned classroom to try and cheer everybody up, and Tom hadn't been into it at all, even though he was normally the life and soul of the party, dancing to whatever was being played, drinking the firewhisky and Butterbeer Sean had magically procured from somewhere and flirting like it was going out of fashion. But instead he had sat quietly at the side, thinking. Sean had questioned him about this.

"Tom, why are you so quiet these days?" he had said as they lounged together on the roof of the school, which was technically out of bounds but was often used as a location for girls to sunbathe and boys to laze about.

"I don't know Sean, maybe it's because Emmy's not here anymore," Tom had replied sarcastically.

"Jeez, no need to bite my head off," Sean had uttered a low whistle, "I know you liked Caitlin – a lot – and so did I, I adored Emmy too, she was one of the funniest people I know, and what happened to them is beyond comprehension – but sometimes you have to let go and move on."

"I can't move on," was all Tom replied. It was impossible for him to do so.

"I have missed you so much," Caitlin whispered, interrupting his thoughts. It was now quite late – though little had been said, they had been in the tree house for a few hours.

Tom shifted his head so his Caribbean blue eyes were meeting the olive orbs that gleamed back at him. "I missed you, unbelievably so," he said – it was enough. The stars were shining in the night sky and the moon seemed to cast a silvery glow through the window of the tree house. They soundlessly fell asleep.

And, when they awoke the next morning, they found themselves holding hands.

After their excursion in the old house, Emmy and Sirius had returned to the swinging chair in the back garden – they were soon joined by James, who decided to lighten the mood by sitting in Sirius' lap, with his feet (somehow shoeless) resting on Emmy's knees. They allowed themselves to cry with laughter at the funny stories told, impressions and jokes made and the banter between the three of them rife. When there was a lull after James had finished telling a particularly entertaining tale about how he had tried to convince Lily to go out with him, they realised how late it was, and the jet black sky, sprinkled with sparkling silver stars, prompted them to come back in.

"Boys, you can share Tom's room, I'm not sure where he is–" Tom's mum said nervously, but Emmy quickly reassured her with the fact that he was in the tree house with Caitlin. "Right – well, Emmy, you can have the little bedroom and Caitlin can share it with you when they come back – James, your mum and dad are sleeping in the spare room."

Everybody thanked her and went upstairs to their relevant rooms. Emmy felt slightly lonely as she lay on her bed in her pyjamas, just thinking. She could hear James and Sirius clearly next door – perhaps _too _clearly, as she could hear exactly what they were saying. She knew it was rude to eavesdrop, but she couldn't exactly shut out what they were saying, it was impossible!

"So you're sure Lily is going to go out with you this year," Sirius said in such a flat, monotonous voice Emmy had to stifle a giggle.

"Of course she is! She's not immune to the Potter powers of persuasion," James said gleefully.

"Mate, sorry to point this out, but she's been pretty immune to them the past what, five years?" Sirius pointed out.

"At least I only like one girl – what about you, Mr. Snog-Any-Random-Girl-That's-Up-For-It?" James teased. So Sirius _was_ a player, not just universally liked by girl-kind, Emmy thought – well, he could get away with it with those looks and that personality, and that smile, and those eyes...

"I'm not a womaniser Prongs," Sirius laughed, "well, not _quite _that bad anyway. I only kissed five girls last year. Not quite beating my fourth year record."

"Yeah, but your fourth year record was fifty-six," James responded.

"I discovered girls that year!" Sirius said – she could almost see him holding his hands up in defence.

"And all the things they can offer, eh?" James said suggestively – again, Emmy could visualise him waggling his eyebrows at his best friend.

"Pretty much, yeah," Sirius admitted defeat, and the two boys started laughing.

"Pads," James said after a few moments of silence, in a voice that indicated to both Sirius and Emmy who was surreptitiously listening on the other side of the wall, "have you ever _really _liked a girl? Really fancied them, and nobody else?"

"Like you with Lily, you mean?" he replied.

"Yeah – you know, obviously you found other girls pretty and stuff, but you saw that one girl and thought, yeah, she's who I really like and want to be with," James added.

"Once, when I was about thirteen, fourteen, but it wasn't for very long," Sirius said. "I used to really, really _fancy _Aretha, really bad, at the end of third year and the start of fourth, I used to stare at her all the time in class–"

"That was why? Moony and I thought you had a lazy eye!" James interjected.

"Thanks," Sirius said in an amused voice. "Anyway, I used to make up excuses as to why I had to talk to her and be with her and stuff, and it got really intense, the way I felt; but then, when we went into fourth, suddenly all these girls were interested in me and wanted to be with me, and I kind of went along with it, and my feelings for her kind of – went away."

"But that was only for about six months – I've felt like that and more for Lily for five years! Am I some kind of weird obsessed stalker?" James asked earnestly.

"Nooo!" Sirius said pointedly. "Just a tad overzealous sometimes..."

"And... Pads... do you like somebody at the moment?" James continued his questioning.

Sirius was slow to give his answer, Emmy noticed.

"Yeah, I think I do," he confessed.

"Who?" James said excitedly – it sounded like he had practically fallen out of bed in shock.

"Let's just say she's tall and pretty with beautiful eyes, and very funny," he said.

"Won't you tell me her name?" James begged.

"Maybe another time," Sirius said tantalisingly.

Then there was quiet.


	16. It's Not About You

**Bad Romance**

_**By Lily Orange**_

_A/N:_ Sorry about the long wait for an update, I have finished school now (YAYYY!) but have been really busy, but am dedicating a few days this week to writing :) Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited and alerted, it means a lot to me! Enjoy the chapter and please review :) xx

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**Chapter Sixteen**

**_It's Not About You_**

Seraphina Ornys was not, no matter what anybody said about her, stupid. Though she definitely possessed more beauty than brains – and she admitted that and played it up – she was a Slytherin, and people did not get selected to be in the Slytherin house without a cunning wit and a certain slyness about them. So Seraphina did not exactly fit the Ravenclaw mould, but she was still marginally intelligent. And her marginal intelligence was telling her how exactly to ensnare Regulus Black and make him become hers. She had been thinking about it solidly since they had returned to school and she saw him sitting at the Slytherin table in the Great Hall, looking all brooding and dark – and _so _attractive.

As she sat in the common room, an elegant peacock-feather quill posed in a slender golden hand above an incomplete Potions essay, she pondered how exactly she was going to make him fall for her – if he wasn't head over heels already, of course. She had that kind of effect on people.

It didn't really matter to her that she was a seventh-year and he a fifth – he was old in his year and she young in hers, so it kind of balanced out. Anyway, he was certainly a good person to be with – he was a wealthy pureblood from a noble family lineage. Being a Slytherin, Seraphina found these admirable qualities in a potential boyfriend. The Black family was an old one, and Regulus' great-great-grandfather, Phineas Nigellus Black, used to be Headmaster of Hogwarts. Their pureblood ancestry obviously meant they were a rich family, and Seraphina liked nothing more than a handsome rich boy from a good family.

She dropped the peacock quill down on top of the parchment, glistening with jet ink, and examined her perfectly filed fingernails, that were painted a very piercing emerald green colour, and held them out in front of her, before smiling to herself, revealing two rows of perfectly aligned, pearly white teeth to the other people in the common room right at that moment. She knew she looked good – her face was so exquisitely crafted, she was once told, that it looked as if it had been sculpted by the Gods and then touched by Midas.

Whoever that was. She wasn't that hot on general knowledge.

Her hair lay in exotic charcoal curls down her back, half pinned up with an ornamental flower hair slide. Seraphina had put in extra special effort that morning in order to look irresistible.

"What're you doing?" her best friend Astilbe said, leaping into the armchair beside her whilst simultaneously reading the top line of Seraphina's essay. "Ah, Potions. Interesting."

"Not exactly," Seraphina confessed, smiling coyly. Astilbe's eyes lifted.

"Thinking about a certain young Mr Black?" Astilbe winked with infuriating astuteness.

"Maybe – I don't know what it is about him, I usually go for older men," Seraphina said dreamily, thinking back to her last boyfriend, who had been training to be a Junior Member of the Wizengamot – he had been twenty-seven.

"Yeah," Astilbe agreed – she herself had been slightly involved with Augustus Rookwood, but it had fizzled out. She wasn't that bothered, she preferred to solve other people's problems and feed off their relationships rather than establish her own.

"But he's just so... Merlin, he's so damn sexy!" Seraphina sighed, visualizing Regulus' face – the pale contours of his aristocratic cheek bones, his grey-blue eyes that sparkled, and the straight dark hair that flopped into them. Yes, he was definitely good-looking.

"So is his brother," Astilbe cackled wickedly, thinking about Sirius – and his tall, muscular, gorgeous frame that was incomparable amongst the males of Hogwarts. Sirius Black was somewhat of a legend amongst the girls of Hogwarts – besides being immensely good-looking, he was funny and caring. He had his close friends, the Marauders, and he was highly intelligent. He was the boy every girl wanted to be with and every boy wanted to be.

"Yes, but his brother doesn't date Slytherins," Seraphina growled.

"Still sexy though," Astilbe shrugged. "Anyway, what's your plan to go and get Regulus?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Seraphina beamed at her best friend. "Well, at the moment, he's in his dorm with Dolohov and the others, but when he comes down, I'm almost _certain _he's going to go to the Black Lake and sit by the side, like he so frequently does, so I am going to conveniently bump into him there."

"Good plan – just make sure it's not a literal bump, the last boy that happened to got a black eye," Astilbe reminded her.

"Yeah, but he only came up my chest," Seraphina shrugged.

"Exactly – in fact, make that _two _black eyes," Astilbe giggled.

"Shut up," Seraphina grinned, "anyway, it'll take place _any moment now_."

As if on cue, out of the tunnel to the left of the glowing emerald fireplace (that seemed, impossibly, to have green flames burning in the hearth), walked Regulus Black, his floppy hair hanging in his eyes, his lips pursed and his hands in the pockets of his dark grey jeans. He wandered past the two girls lounging on the armchairs by the fire and out of the portrait hole.

"What did I tell you?" Seraphina winked, standing up and smoothing down her skirt. "How do I look?"

"Seducible," Astilbe giggled, looking at Seraphina's carefully chosen outfit: a cream roll-neck cashmere jumper, an emerald skirt and black Mary Jane shoes. Her eye makeup was perfectly applied and her lips were freshly glossed.

"Good – I'll see you later, the girlfriend of Regulus Black!" she called as she clambered through the portrait hole, just a couple of minutes after Regulus. She scurried up the hallway – as quickly as her shoes would let her – until she saw him up ahead, rounding a corner with surprising pace for somebody who was supposedly taking a leisurely stroll to the Black Lake. Although pretty, she wasn't the fittest of people and was hoping that all this sudden exercise wouldn't muss up her hair or mean that her makeup ran.

"Hey, Seraphina," a seventh-year Hufflepuff, Miles Hepburn, stopped her with a charming smile on his face. In all justice to him, he was gorgeous – but Seraphina only ever went for who she wanted, and right at that point, the person she wanted was Regulus Black.

"Hi Miles, sorry, I'm in a hurry..." she tailed off, flicking her hair over her shoulder (habit) and turning to go, but he gently put his hand on her arm, and somehow steered her back towards him. She was willing.

"You weren't in so much of a hurry on Thursday," he said deeply – then Seraphina flashed back to the little episode that did occur last Thursday, involving a broom cupboard and her scarlet lipstick everywhere. She remembered that she did rather enjoy herself... but it had just been a little relapse in her liking Regulus. In fact, she couldn't even remember much apart from standing opposite Miles, covered in her lipstick, in a broom cupboard. Maybe a Firewhisky was involved. Or two. Again, she wasn't that sure.

"I know, but, unfortunately, I have to go," she said, smiling beatifically at him. Enchanted, her relinquished his grip and blew her a kiss as she scrambled down the corridor, hoping that Regulus was indeed going to the lake, as otherwise she wouldn't run into him – and that was the plan.

She managed to dodge any past misdemeanours as she made it to the great oak door that led out into the grounds – it was open, as it was uncommonly warm for September. She spotted a rather Regulus-looking figure down by the Black Lake, so composed herself and began to casually saunter down the gravelled path, past other students who were lying in the grass, sunning themselves.

"Wow, Regulus, is that you?" she said in her best I'm-so-surprised voice as she pretended just to see him and to avoid giving away the fact that she had stalked him all the way from the castle.

"It was last time I checked, yeah," he replied with a confused expression on his face.

"Mind if I sit down? Good," she said sweetly, not leaving him anytime to protest, seating herself right next to him and positioning her skirt so that it slid slightly up one leg in a haphazard manner.

He stared out to the lake – not noticing the way her leg was practically in his face and the way she was pouting seductively at him.

"Something on your mind?" she purred in his ear. He almost jumped a mile when he realised the closeness of her proximity to him.

"You could say that, yeah," he answered, shifting away a little bit.

"Wanna tell me about it, _sweetie_?" she growled, putting her hand on his knee.

"Um, no thank you," Regulus said quickly, returning her hand to her own knee.

"Well how about this, then?" she whispered in his ear, her lips practically tickling the lobe. He turned to look at her in alarm, and she immediately pressed her lips to his, nibbling them with such force that he pushed her away and stood up.

"Didn't you like it?" she pouted, her bottom lip all swollen.

"No, I didn't, Seraphina, because I don't like you like that, okay? You're pretty, yeah, but I like somebody else, and I don't appreciate you pushing yourself on me like some desperate harpy!" he ranted heatedly, before storming off up towards the castle.

"Well that wasn't supposed to happen," she shrugged, "obviously doesn't know what he's missing. Miles, on the other hand, might do..."


	17. Dinnertime Conversation

**Bad Romance**

_**By Lily Orange**_

_A/N: _I am really sorry about the long wait for this chapter, I've had a bit of writer's block but this morning woke up and thought "I'm going to write" so I've nearly finished Chapter 18 :) hopefully I can get some more chapters done this week so then give you some more regular updates... Thank you so much for your support and patience, thanks for reading and please review :)

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**Chapter Seventeen**

**_Dinnertime Conversation_**

The following Friday, in their Potions lesson, Professor Slughorn announced to Lily – and Emmy, much to her amazement – that he would be having a little "meeting of the Slug Club, just for a chat... nice food... conversation... crystallized pineapple..."; Lily duly accepted, seeing as she couldn't get out of it, and Emmy said she would go to appease Lily.

James was fervently trying to convince the professor that he should be allowed to come too.

"But sir, I've worked ever so hard the past week!" he pleaded as Lily tried to stab him with the knife she was using to cut up some knotgrass for the potion they were making.

"Yes m'boy, but you nearly blinded several of your classmates with your enthusiastic Castor Bean chopping last week, didn't you?" he said sternly.

"But nobody was hurt! Please, _please _Professor, my, er, mum and dad are very high up... well, at St Mungo's?" James offered.

"I'm afraid I've not had the pleasure of meeting them..." Slughorn trailed off, quickly zipping to the other side of the classroom to talk to Severus Snape about the progression of his potion.

"It's alright," James said rather loudly, "I was busy anyway, with... um... Quidditch practice!"

"I thought that line was only used when Lily said 'No,' to a date with you," Remus mused thoughtfully on the bench next to him.

"Shut up Moonypants," James growled threateningly as he poured a whole jar full of scarab beetles into the cauldron. It promptly blew up in their faces.

"JAMES!" Lily screeched in annoyance, brushing some of the ash off of her face and praying that it hadn't embedded itself into the auburn plait that had been snaking down her back. James looked very surprised with himself – his face was covered in soot and his hair was sticking up in all directions; not much different to how it was usually.

"That was your comeuppance for calling me 'Moonypants'," Remus said smugly as he sprinkled in five scarab beetles (as the potion required), instead of the hundred and seventy-two James had chucked in homicidally.

"Believe me, there's worse," Sirius chipped in, laughing hysterically at James' surprised appearance. "Wow, Prongs, I thought cauldron-exploding was saved for Wormy!"

"Me too," James agreed as Lily whacked him over the head with her potions book.

"You stupid, stupid, chicken-brained, hippogriff-arsed FOOL!" she shouted at him.

"Hippogriff-arsed?" Sirius echoed in interest, stroking his chin as if there was a beard there – Emmy giggled. "So you have assessed exactly what James' arse looks like?"

"No!" Lily denied, her face reddening underneath all the soot and ash that was covering her face.

"I bet you were, Lily," James said, batting his eyelashes at her, "seeing as it was voted Hogwarts' Sexiest Arse three years in a row."

"Is there such a poll?" Emmy asked in amusement.

"Yep," Remus began to explain, "James established it, nominated himself and voted three hundred and eighty-nine times."

"It only just beat the three hundred and eighty-three people who voted for mine," Sirius winked, "and I didn't even participate."

"Not this again, Pads!" James sighed, ignoring Lily, who was repeatedly thwacking every inch of his body with her weapon of mass-destruction. "Anyway, Moonyplop, I didn't vote for myself."

"Don't call me Moonyplop," Remus groaned.

"Sorry, Moonynumbertwo," James replied.

"I don't think that one worked as well, mate," Sirius pointed out.

"No, definitely not as good as Moonypants," James agreed.

"If you've quite finished, there are only three hundred and ninety people in Hogwarts," Remus replied drily, "so explain how over seven hundred votes were cast?"

"Well," James spluttered, not quite able to muster up an answer.

"We all know that I have the sexiest arse in the world, let alone Hogwarts," Sirius beamed at them all, clambering up onto his stool and slapping his backside for the whole potions class to see, bar Professor Slughorn, who had sneaked into his office for some crystallized pineapple.

"Get down, you look like you're about to do a striptease," Emmy scolded, but laughing at the same time.

"I'm sure nobody would object," Sirius said, grinning widely, and motioning to unbutton his shirt. "_De-ne-ne-ne-ne, duuuuuuuun-dun, de-ne-ne-ne-ne, dun-nun-ne-ne-nun..._"

"What are you doing, m'boy?" Professor Slughorn suddenly asked, emerging out of his office, his cheeks bulging with his favourite piece of confectionary.

"Uh, new potions technique," Sirius quickly improvised, as some of the girls in the class' cheeks turned a luminous shade of fuchsia. "Moving your body in a circular motion prompts the potion to do so to," he said, gyrating his hips so violently that the potion slopped out of the cauldron, all over the desk and onto his feet.

"Yes, very inventive, m'boy, but why don't you stick to regular potioneering methods?" he suggested tentatively.

"Will do, Professor," Sirius smiled, jumping down from the desk and attempting to wipe the potion up with Emmy, who couldn't stop chuckling.

Five minutes later, when they had managed to rescue the potion, Lily had stopped trying to clobber James and Remus was reading a book under the desk whilst Mary painted her fingernails bright red, her hands positioned behind a propped up copy of her Potions textbook, Sirius turned to Emmy and said, "What exactly was the potion we were just making?"

"Shrinking Solution, why?" Emmy replied, idly flicking through the pages of the textbook.

"'Cause my feet feel really strange," he said.

"Did you get any of the potion on them?" she suggested.

He tugged off his shoes – to show feet, once a huge size thirteen, now roughly a baby's size three.

"AHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, and attempted to stand up – but because of his six foot four, heavily muscular physique, his little tiny feet couldn't support him and he feel straight down onto the floor.

"Maybe you should go to the Hospital Wing?" Emmy suggested, unable to keep the grin off her face.

"Yeah..." he said, crawling out of the classroom as fast as he hands and knees could carry him.

"Well, you know what they say... small feet..." James smirked, as Lily whacked him with the book for about the fortieth time that lesson.

That evening, Emmy and Lily were walking together from the common room to the dungeons, dragging their feet a little with their lack of enthusiasm for the Slug Club dinner. They had made a special effort with their attire – Emmy was wearing the purple prom-style dress with flat pumps and tights (and a cardigan, seeing as the castle corridors tended to be freezing in the evening) and Lily a black sixties-style dress with large white flowers printed on it, tights and a cardigan and pumps.

"So are these dinners..." Emmy began, but was cut off by an all-to-knowing Lily.

"Intolerably boring?" Lily provided, and her companion nodded. "Kind of. It's always interesting to see who's there... and the ice cream sundaes are good, but I don't know... it just feels a little... claustrophobic."

"At least James didn't get in," Emmy smiled. Lily promptly flushed tomato.

"I have never met somebody who is so utterly _relaxed _with the world!" she said, shaking her head. "Everything just seems to be a laugh and a joke with him."

Emmy sensed this comment stretched deeper than the parameters of the Potions lesson, but didn't press upon the topic.

"Ah, Miss Evans, Miss Piper! Thank you for joining us!" Professor Slughorn said cheerfully as they entered his office, which now seemed to have a large round table in the centre of it with cushioned chairs around it at regular intervals. Some students were already sat around the table – Emmy noticed the boy she had bumped into at Hogsmeade Station was there. He grinned at her in recognition as Slughorn seated Emmy beside him, Lily on her other side, next to a Ravenclaw seventh-year named Rachael Mortimer, whose Great-Uncle had discovered the use of scarabs in potioneering.

"Emmy, isn't it?" the boy asked, once again losing himself in her enchanting violet eyes. Her skin being so deathly pale, you were immediately drawn to them when looking at her face, as they literally _glowed_.

"Yeah – I bumped into you at the station, didn't I? Sorry about that," she apologised once more.

"Don't worry about it, I must have got shoved about another billion more times than that, those second- and third-years are kind of like savages when they're getting off the train. You get used to it though," he smiled.

"I hope I get used to it," Emmy said cheerfully. "What's your name, by the way?"

"Regulus," he replied, omitting his last name. He didn't want to lie to her, but if she was friends with Sirius, then no doubt Sirius had moaned about him no end, telling her how awful he was and everything. He wasn't that bad. Just a little misunderstood and misguided, and he admitted that.

"Cool name," she grinned.

"So where are you from?" Regulus asked, determined to initiate a long conversation and get to know this golden-haired, violet-eyed angel sat next to him. Surprisingly, when he studied her features, her face wasn't that special – her skin was very pale, her nose had a slight bump in the middle of it and her lips weren't full, but somehow, when she smiled, it was like the sun had come out.

"Originally, England," Emmy began, divulging into her rather mixed-up personal history, "then Albania. Now back here."

"When did you move to Albania?" Regulus asked, interested.

"When I was nine, I moved to this neighbourhood of British ministry workers so all the people who lived round us were British. But I went to the... Albanian equivalent of Hogwarts, I suppose. But it wasn't as nice as here," Emmy explained.

"So you lived there for seven years? Blimey," he said – resisting adding, _Why are you so pale then_?

"I know, but it's a nice place, and the people were nice as well," she said fondly.

"Good," he said, actually meaning it, as Professor Slughorn began the usual boastful conversation, asking everybody about their heritage, families and famous relatives. It got kind of boring, but as Slughorn talked, so did Emmy and Regulus secretly.

First they continued with Emmy's background, Regulus was then a bit vague about his, saying he: "Lived in London with his mum and dad,"; Emmy commented that he looked a lot like Sirius and asked if they were related, he admitted they were siblings but didn't really get on, and Emmy seemed sort of sympathetic. Sirius had been angry about his parents, but hadn't really said anything about his younger brother, so she was still friendly towards him. They then went on to talking about other things, such as their hobbies and interests, found a mutual interest in Astronomy, and generally chatted the night away.

"Well, well, would you believe the time?" Slughorn suddenly exclaimed, looking at his pocket watch. "You'd better go, otherwise your Heads of House will have my head!" He laughed at his own little half-joke, and dismissed them all.

"I suppose I'll see you around then, Emmy?" Regulus asked as they got up from their chairs.

"Yeah, I've really enjoyed talking to you," she said friendlily, before saying goodbye and running after Lily, who had bolted out of the door before Slughorn could talk to her any further.

"Sorry I didn't wait for you," Lily panted around the corner, "normally he starts complimenting me about my capability for potioneering when I'm a muggle-born. Shall we go back to the dorms?"

"Yeah," Emmy agreed, and the two girls wandered up towards the Gryffindor Tower, where they met Aretha arguing with Sirius about Quidditch players, James playing Wizards Chess with Peter (who was losing excruciatingly badly) and Remus reading the _Daily Prophet_.

Regulus slipped back into his dormitory, where his friends were doing some homework, and lay on his bed, not quite able to get that violet-eyed beauty out of his mind.


	18. Calling Agent E

**Bad Romance**

_**By Lily Orange**_

**A/N:** I am so, so, SO sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this chapter, and I hope that you haven't lost interest! I don't know why but I really struggled with writing recently so I'm glad that I've got this out, I'm going to try and write some more one-shots and things as well as continuing to work on this :) please review and let me know what you think and thank you so much for your patience!xxx

**Chapter Eighteen**

**_Calling Agent E_**

The following day was a trip to Hogsmeade for students in third year and above – Caitlin and Emmy had special permission from Charlus and Dorea to be able to attend, so they, like the rest of the third years and above, were getting ready to go.

Lily seemed to be putting an extra special effort into her appearance that morning, spending longer arranging her hair into soft curls around her shoulders and picking out an outfit (a dark green skirt, grey tights, black boots, an emerald jumper and a charcoal jacket that tied at the waist).

"Meeting anyone special, Lils?" Aretha asked, winking at Emmy, who was lacing up her brogues.

"If you must know–" Lily blushed, lining her eyes slightly with kohl.

"Which we must," Aretha interrupted, grinning widely at her best friend.

"–I have a date with somebody," she finished.

"Oh my _Merlin_," Aretha gasped, dropping her turquoise scarf on the floor in shock, "you're going out with JAMES?"

"No," Lily said, reddening even further, "why would I go out with that... that... prat?" However, her question sounded more like it was directed at herself rather than her friends.

"Because you quite blatantly love him," Aretha stated as if it was patently obvious.

"Ha! Me, love _James_? What a joke!" Lily started laughing hysterically, looking as if she was about to hyperventilate, and not in a way that she found it funny, more that she was shocked.

"Calm down, Lil! Okay, if it's not with James, who's it with?" Aretha persisted.

"Joe Webb, the Hufflepuff Chaser," Lily answered, picking up her handbag and taking one last look in the mirror.

"Nice... he has a nice arse," Aretha grinned cheekily before draping her turquoise scarf around her shoulders.

"Shut up," Lily grinned, before turning to Emmy. "Shall we go?"

Emmy nodded, grabbing her jacket and quickly tying her tousled hair up in a messy ponytail. Lily may have been going on a date, but Emmy was just hanging out with the Marauders and Aretha... who apparently always managed to find a date for Hogsmeade, but normally when sat in the Three Broomsticks, making eyes at somebody.

"You can go knock Joe dead," Aretha whispered audaciously as they clambered down the spiral staircase to the common room, and Lily blushed a violent red, before elbowing her best friend hard in the ribs.

"What's wrong with you?" Sirius exclaimed, seeing the way Aretha was overdramatically crying in pain and Lily was grinning at her in satisfaction.

"Lily – elbowed – me – in – ribs!" Aretha gasped, before throwing herself down on one of the armchairs.

"Stop it, it wasn't _that _hard," Lily scoffed with a twinkle in her emerald eyes that James surreptitiously observed. He could never get over how _beautiful _she was... he knew that technically there were girls in the school that were much prettier than her, but she was just so natural and so lustrous, all the time. He often studied the way she looked, her facial expressions, the way she talked and acted... she could be so spontaneous, but was often stuck in her ways; her smile was wide, sometimes a little scary, but it made her face shine; her conversation was witty, biting, sarcastic... and he gluttonously craved it. She was so interesting, without even knowing it. She was magical, utterly bewitching. He had been bewitched by her for five years, yet she showed no sign of reciprocating it at all.

"I could think of _many _rude things to say about that, but because I'm such a good, respectable young boy, I'm not going to!" Sirius said in a singsong voice. Everybody was quiet for a moment, the cogs whirring in their brains, and then they all started spluttering and hitting Sirius. "What?" he exclaimed. "I didn't say them!"

"Shut up Padfoot," Remus chastised him.

"What you gonna do, Moonster?" Sirius challenged jokingly. "Do you wanna take this outside?"

"No," Remus said tiredly, "shall we just go?"

Everybody agreed, leaving Sirius hopping along after them, shaking his fists and yelling, "Put 'em up, put 'em up! You want a piece of me?"

"Somebody shove a Quaffle in his mouth," James commented, and was quite surprised when Lily joined in with the girls' laughter.

"And this is my cue to go," Lily said as they came to the Entrance Hall, where she saw Joe standing by a pillar waiting for her. He was quite tall, not as tall as Sirius and James, probably about five foot ten, with short brown hair and dark eyes. He looked seriously nervous, and when Lily left her friends, who all pottered off outside in the direction of the village, he saw her. Lily took in his smile and the way he stood up straighter, happy to see her... but there was something not quite right. He looked cheerful and pleased she was there, but the look he gave her wasn't as loving and appreciative of her presence. She didn't mean to sound arrogant... but when James looked at her, it was almost like he was happy to be alive and with her, like he survived off her presence and drank it in like medicine. It made her feel beautiful.

"Hey Lily, how are you?" Joe said. "You look nice."

"Thanks, I'm fine," Lily said, hiding the slight disappointment in her voice.

"Good, shall we go?" Joe asked, and she nodded. It was going to be a long date...

"I'm bored," Sirius declared as he drank the whole of his Butterbeer in one go, much to the amazement of the others.

"You can't be bored," Aretha stated plainly, "you just spent all your money, and James', in Zonko's!"

"Yeah, but we've already done that, and now I'm bored," Sirius moaned.

"Just drink your drink and shut up," Aretha smiled sweetly at him, and Sirius stuck his tongue out in a way that would not be becoming on anybody but him.

"I already did," Sirius said in satisfaction and leaned back in his chair, watching his friends quietly sip at their drinks as they thought of something to do. "Anyway, what's on the agenda after this?"

"I know... I've got a great idea!" James smiled maniacally as a metaphorical wand lit up inside his head.

"Prongs, can I just point out, that whenever you proclaim to have a 'Great Idea', it usually ends up in complete disaster?" Remus said as James continued to grin at them inanely.

"Yeah, so let's hear it!" Sirius guffawed, slapping his hands together in utter amusement.

"Well, it involves Lily and that slimy idiot that she's with at the moment," James stated. Aretha and Emmy rolled their eyes.

"His name's Joe Webb and he's not a slimy idiot, he's a very fetching handsome idiot," Aretha corrected, sipping more of her drink and repositioning herself so that she would be more comfortable on the bar stool she was currently occupying. James shrugged nonchalantly.

"Anyway, we are going to stand in different parts of Hogsmeade and we are going to check that she is okay and that he is not hurting her or being rude to her or upsetting her in anyway," James explained.

"So, basically, you want us all to help you in your favourite game, the title of which is 'Let's Stalk Lily!'?" Remus asked matter-of-factly. The Marauders were very used to having to play this game, which James had invented sometime during second year, when he had decided (a very momentous decision that was still factored into his every thought, deed and word) that he was going to make Lily Evans like him back. Love him, if it were possible. Sixth year James was no different, especially in the fact that Lily had wavered very little in the four years he had spent devoting most of his time to her.

"When you put it like that..." James shrugged. "Anyway, you said you were bored. Instant Boredom Cure. Walaaaa!"

"I think you mean _Voila _but we get the point," Aretha said, turning to look at a neighbouring table, surrounded by some Ravenclaws.

"Should we r-really be stalking Lily?" Peter stammered, carefully putting down his half-finished Butterbeer.

"Why yes, my friend, we should," his Lily-mad friend replied.

Emmy assessed the situation. She supposed that James' devotion was sweet, and she reckoned that Lily liked him. However, if his devotion was unreciprocated, it would be heart-breaking for him. But she knew it was reciprocated. She had an inkling, a feeling... and a bit of Lily-stalking would appease him and perhaps shut him up for a bit.

"Why not?" she offered, and James grinned appreciatively at her.

"I can think of many reasons why not..." Remus murmured, but he knew he would be roped in to help anyway.

"Good, so we need to split up into groups or pairs so that we look less conspicuous..." James declared, with the meticulousness of a military officer.

"C-conspicuous?" Peter repeated in confusion.

"Less obvious, less stark raving bonkers," Remus translated helpfully.

Aretha was oblivious, still watching the movements of the next table, flashing them strategic smiles, but was quickly brought down to earth by a sharp kick from Sirius.

"So there are six of us, which means three pairs... Moony, I think you'd better look after Wormtail because you know what he's like – you can sit by the entrance to Hogsmeade so that you know if they're leaving or not. Sirius, you go with Aretha, and go sit up by the Shrieking Shack so you can prevent any naughtiness going on–"

"Naughtiness? Oo-er!" Sirius grinned cheekily, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Be quiet, this is a serious operation!"

"Prongs, we are stalking a girl you want to be your girlfriend. I don't think this is the most serious thing we've ever done," Remus said helpfully.

"I'm the most serious thing ever done," Sirius winked.

"Ew, shut up!" Aretha punched him. "You better not behave like that up at the Shrieking Shack!"

"You'll ruin the operation if you do!" James squawked loudly, earning strange looks from the neighbouring Ravenclaw table. "Anyway, that leaves me and Emmy. I hope you don't mind sitting with me on the bench outside Honeydukes, we get a good view of the entire street from there."

"No, that's fine – but you owe me a box of Chocolate Cauldrons," Emmy smiled sweetly. James agreed and they got up from the table and left each other, taking up their posts as James had ardently directed.

"James, if you don't mind me asking, why do you like Lily so much?" Emmy said as they made themselves comfortable on the wooden bench outside the Honeydukes window.

"Well, most people would say because she's pretty, she's smart, she's kind and she's funny. But... I just think she's a lot more than that. That's the average girl most boys will go for. But Lily, without even putting any effort in, is special. She's not just pretty, she's truly beautiful. She's not just smart; the way she knows so many things I don't really intrigues me, it makes me want to make her share them. She's kind and funny, but not just that... she's downright hilarious and even when she's rejecting me, somehow it makes me laugh. And she is really helpful... I've never told her that I saw this, or anyone else apart from Sirius, but when we were in fifth year, there was this first year Gryffindor who had lost their new kitten their grandmother had given them for their birthday. She was in absolute bits, this little girl, and her friends had tried to help her find the kitten but to no avail. When I was lying on the floor in the common room one night, trying to put our latest prank into place, the little girl was still in there but she didn't know I was there. About fifteen minutes passed and suddenly the portrait hole opened... in walked Lily, who was soaking wet and who had obviously been outside, clutching the little kitten, who she'd found stuck in some brambles at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. She'd been outside in the pouring rain and had scoured the grounds in the dark, just so the little girl could have the kitten. She never told anyone, but it just reaffirmed to me how special she is. When I see her, it's almost as if nobody else exists. I know it sounds clichéd, but it really is. Even when she's ill she's beautiful, and when she's angry she looks stunning. She's inexplicable."

"Wow," was all Emmy could say as they watched numerous Hogwarts students wander past, gabbling excitedly about the things they had bought from various shops. James smiled at her, and leaned back in his seat, his hazel eyes following the footsteps of the people passing.

About ten minutes passed as they sat there in comfortable silence. So far, they had observed a group of boys throwing three dungbombs into a group of squealing girls; a boy being dared by his friends to eat a suspiciously-coloured Bertie Botts bean, who proceeded to throw up in a flower pot after declaring it to be cheesy-feet-flavoured; a young couple kissing rather passionately down the side of the Leaky Cauldron and a large and beefy Slytherin Quidditch player trip over a little tabby cat.

After the ten minutes, James suddenly sat up to attention. "Ooh, is that Lily?" he asked excitedly, pointing at a redheaded figure clad in greens and greys, laughing at something the brown-haired boy with her was saying.

"Yeah, I think it is," Emmy confirmed.

"I'm going to follow her."

"Are you really sure that's the best idea?"

"Uh, yeah, I'm the master of disguise!"

"Then why are you holding a bunch of flowers in front of your face?"

"I'm pretending to be a flower bush. Back in a bit!" He sprinted off, enthusiastically following Lily and Joe as they strolled up the high street, leaving Emmy by herself on the bench. She smiled at James' running figure, before turning back to watch the people in the street pass by.

It wasn't long, again, before she saw something that attracted her attention. A group of fifth year boys, all dressed in their own clothes but with their unmistakeably Slytherin scarves, striped emerald and silver, were approaching a group of laughing first years, who were toying with a Zonko's joke shop firework in the street.

Naturally Emmy was inclined to think nothing of it – house rivalry wasn't something she really knew much about. At her Albanian school, the houses were just there for sleeping and Quidditch purposes, everyone sat together and intermingled in the dining hall and hung out with all houses. She could guess that it was a little more serious at Hogwarts than that, but was not accustomed to it. If James had still been sat there, he probably would have said something, because he had been indoctrinated with the inter-house rivalry. However, Emmy sat there, continuing her people watching, but focussing on the group of first years as there weren't many others about. James, disguised with his flowers, had disappeared in pursuit of Lily and was now nowhere to be seen.

"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!" was the curse that bought the incident to Emmy's attention. She sat up, and saw that one of the Slytherins had performed the jinx on a first year, who was now locked in his body on the ground. The Slytherins began to laugh, making Emmy hot with anger. She could feel it pulsing through her veins as she instinctively jumped up and drew her wand, but as she ran over, the Slytherins dispersed into the nearest shops, obviously too cowardly to stick around and seal the deal. Emmy performed the counter-jinx on the little first year, but she turned around to see the face of the Slytherin who had jinxed him.

It was Regulus Black.


	19. Revelations and Realisations

**Bad Romance**

_By Lily Orange_

_A/N:_ Yay! Thanks for the reviews, glad you haven't lost interest! Here's another chapter, enjoy and I hope everyone's okay! xxx

Chapter Nineteen

_Revelations and Realisations_

The dawn of the following school week started with a bang, in the mind of Lily Evans. She had run over the events of her date with Joe time and time again, and had yet to suffer the analysis of everything by Aretha, who seemed to think she was some kind of love guru. Lily adored her best friend to be fair, and she also adored Emmy, the new entry to their little pair, who seemed to fit in so perfectly it was as if they'd always known her. But her revelation, the big bang that turned what could have been a normal Monday into one that could probably be aptly described as manic, was not to do with the arrival of Emmy or Aretha's impending dissection of her date with the Hufflepuff chaser. No, it was something _entirely _different that had seemingly smacked her in the face as she snapped open her emerald eyes at precisely six-thirty that morning.

She liked James Potter.

As soon as she said it to herself, whispered it aloud in the practically silent dorm room, Lily sat bolt upright, almost as if to erase the words from the air, her eyes wide in shock and her lips pursed. She almost felt like slapping herself. She had never wanted to like James as more than a friend, because she had always thought that he was immature and only professed to love her for the entertainment of others.

And now she had realised the – what was to everybody else – inevitable, that she liked him as more than a friend, wanted to kiss him and quite possibly be his girlfriend. It was so clichéd, she realised. That's what she hated about her Monday morning realisation – she knew that it was going to happen, no matter how adamant she was that she would never like James.

"Merlin," she cursed, before picking up her uniform and a towel and shutting herself in the shower. Her red hair was everywhere, and her makeup from yesterday which she had forgotten to clean off was smudged underneath her eyes, but her eyes glittered... almost as if her realisation made her happy. She raised an eyebrow at her reflection, and silently made a vow to keep it secret for as long as possible. Hopefully then she would get over her little crush and find a nice boyfriend who didn't still find putting frogspawn in people's pumpkin juice at dinner hilarious.

"I can't stay awake that long!" Sirius drawled as he leaned on the table in the Gryffindor common room, his grey eyes consistently shutting then opening to wake him up again. Next to him, Remus and Peter were playing a game of Wizard's Chess and James was drawing up a Quidditch play (his four hundred and fifty-fifth revision of it) which Sirius was supposed to be helping with, but he was lolling about, whilst trying to keep awake.

"Shush," James growled as he moved the objects he had set out on the table that were supposed to represent the players on the Quidditch pitch – different coloured Bertie Botts' beans, which had to then be replaced by screwed up balls of parchment once Sirius had started eating them.

"Seriously, we have Astronomy at midnight, how the hell am I supposed to not go to sleep?" he cried, waving his arms around maniacally in a way that had Peter looking quite scared.

"Um, I don't know, but shut up," James said without even looking up from the Bertie Botts' beans and parchment balls that he was prodding around with his wand, whilst avidly scribbling down practically indecipherable notes on a piece of parchment that was almost completely black with ink.

"We've only got an hour to go," Remus reminded him.

"Yes, but a _lot _can happen in an hour," Sirius retorted.

"Such as?" Remus prompted.

"Um, wars can be started, you can take a portkey to the other side of the world, a woman can get pregnant..." he drifted off, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Oh dear," Peter assessed.

"...plus I could fall asleep!" he continued, picking up a bright red Bertie Botts' bean off the table from James' Quidditch play and popping it in his mouth.

"Merlin, Padfoot, you just ate me!" James admonished, ripping some parchment off and screwing it up before replacing his figure on the table.

"Ah, you tasted nice, like strawberries," Sirius winked.

"This is so wrong," Remus shook his head.

"Get your mind out of the gutter Remus," Sirius grinned widely at him. "And I'm going to go and find people to chat with if none of you can be bothered too..."

"Good riddance!" James called after him as he wandered off in the direction of the portrait hole.

Lily had made sure that all day she had stayed away from James Potter. Ever since her less-than-welcome realisation that morning at six-thirty, she had made every effort to keep out of his way. Luckily, he hadn't quite realised her pointed efforts yet, but he soon would. Then he would corner her and question her why. And that was the part that worried her, as it would probably be away from everyone else, in some abandoned classroom or something or when they were alone in the common room together (not that she would let that happen, she was going to stay glued to Emmy and Aretha... though not literally) and then she knew she would have a strange urge to snog his face off.

Lily knew for a fact she would have this urge because she had had it that very morning when she saw James at breakfast, like some kind of magnet pulling her insides in his direction. It was creepy yet she wanted it to happen at the same time. Her feelings were contradicting each other, mostly her head was trying to overrule her heart and she just kept trying to shut them up. Plus she hadn't told Aretha or Emmy about what she had realised. She knew that Aretha would be all "I saw this coming!" and Emmy would be all "This is so great!" and then they would try and tell James, which was exactly what she didn't want to happen. Her feelings for him were just a fleeting thing, she could tell. Probably just because he was a remotely attractive boy who she happened to see every day. Well, he was more than just remotely attractive, but it wasn't helping the argument.

"You okay Lils?" Aretha poked her arm. Lily realised she had been staring at the same page in the Transfiguration book about turning pillows into porcupines for ten minutes, probably with a dazed look on her face. At least she wasn't drooling.

"Er, yeah, I'm fine," she smiled, and quickly turned the page to hide the drool she had just noticed on the picture of the porcupine. Great.

"You sure?" Aretha persisted.

"Yep, just brilliant," Lily repeated.

"You never told us how your date went on Saturday," Aretha winked, and Emmy grinned from across the table. Lily knew this was coming, and had been hoping that she could have avoided it for a good few days. However, because she was avoiding James, she couldn't avoid Aretha as well, otherwise she would be lonely; but she'd take the date dissection over talking to James Potter and possibly experiencing the urge to snog him again any day.

"It went well," she replied.

"Come on Lily, give us more than that!" Emmy smiled excitedly.

"Fine, Joe was nice, he was friendly, he was polite, we went to the Three Broomsticks, then had a look round the shops, then we saw you at the Shrieking Shack Aretha, then we walked back to the castle," Lily summarised.

"Yeah, funny coincidence that you saw me and Sirius there," Aretha said innocently before sharing a quick glance with Emmy. Their spying mission on Lily's date had to be kept under wraps otherwise James would prank them to the moon and back – his words, not theirs.

"I know," Lily replied, "so yeah, it was nice."

"Are you going to see him again?" Emmy asked, pushing aside the Potions textbook she had in front of her that she'd been making notes of for about two hours. There was only a bit of time before they had to go to their Astronomy class anyway, so there wasn't much point carrying on.

"It was nice, but it wasn't that nice," Lily answered hesitantly.

"Come on, Lils, that's what you say after _every _date!" Aretha sighed, leaning back in her chair and twirling her quill around in her long fingers. "I know you keep saying you're waiting for something special, but seriously, Joe's nice!"

"I know he's nice, but he's not the right person for me, and that makes me not the right person for him," Lily replied contentedly. "There's no point having a relationship with him if I don't like him like that."

"I know, but seriously, Lil, who is the right person for you?" Aretha continued, wanting to sort something out for her best friend.

"I don't know, but when I meet them, I'll know," Lily told her. "What about you, anybody you like at the moment?"

"Same old same old," Aretha smiled, "there's always somebody! Let's just say he's hot and he's not taken, which I may work to change."

"What, the hot part or the taken part?" Lily laughed.

"Both," Aretha winked, and they all chuckled. "What about you, Emmy? Anyone you like at the moment?"

"I've only been in England a couple of weeks!" Emmy exclaimed. "There are loads of lovely boys, that's all I'm going to say."

"And I'm one of them!" came the voice of Sirius Black and he rounded the corner leading to the girls' table. He knew it was past eleven, so they shouldn't really have been in the library, but Madam Pince seemed to love Lily so let her stay late before Astronomy classes, and thus a few of her friends as well.

"Obviously," Emmy rolled her eyes and smiled as Sirius leaned on the back of her chair over their table.

"Budge up so I can sit down," he asked, his grin wide and his grey eyes sparkling as he pushed Emmy up the seat and sat down on approximately seven eighths of it, leaving Emmy with hardly any space at all. "Thank you my dear," he laughed, throwing his arm round her to stop her falling off.

"Hi Sirius, come to join the party?" Aretha asked him pleasantly.

"You know I make the party," he replied with a wink.

"Then you'll know this party is moving to the North Tower in a minute to Astronomy," Lily informed him.

"Ah, I just left the common room to stop myself from falling asleep. Moony and Wormy were playing Wizards Chess and James was messing about with beans and paper so I was bored so I was nearly asleep so I decided to find you all to have some scintillating conversation and now we have to go to class. Yay," he said sarcastically and they all burst out laughing at his sardonic long-winded speech.

"Unfortunately we do," Aretha grimaced, picking up her bag and putting the book she had back on the shelf. Lily did the same, and got up to go with Aretha. Emmy, however, had considerably more books to put away so Sirius lent her a hand, stacking them on the shelves that were just out of her reach. Lily and Aretha started to go, leaving Emmy and Sirius drag behind to talk.

No matter how much Sirius tended towards light hearted, jokey conversation, Emmy wanted to know about Regulus, about what she had seen in Hogsmeade. She wasn't one for telling tales... but something told her that it wasn't a unique incident and that it happened more often than Regulus would probably have her believe.

"Sirius, can I talk to you about something?" she asked timidly as they meandered through the corridors together.

"Yeah sure, you know you can talk to me about anything," Sirius said genuinely.

"Thanks... it's about your brother," she continued cautiously. She could almost sense Sirius tensing up slightly but he invited her to carry on and talk to him about whatever it was. "Well, on Saturday, when we were supposed to be Lily-stalking and you were up at the Shrieking Shack with Aretha, I was just sitting on a bench in Hogsmeade with James and he saw Lily and Joe so went off to follow them, leaving me on the bench just watching people walking by. There was this group of first years who were messing about with a firework from Zonko's and then this group of Slytherin fifth-years intervened and one of them performed the body binding curse on one of the first years and the Slytherins laughed then ran away and then the one who had jinxed him turned and it was... it was Regulus. I know this seems really weird, me telling you this, but... is he like that normally?"

Sirius paused. He knew that Emmy knew about some of his family problems... but did he really want to tell her that his brother aspired to be a Death Eater when they were the very people who had killed not only her mother and father, but her aunt and uncle too? The people who had destroyed any chance of normality for her? Would she not want to be friends with him then, fearing that he was like his brother, who was easily led astray by corruption and the glamour of evil? Because that's what his brother was. He wanted to follow the rest of the crowd, Sirius knew it wasn't his own personal decision to follow that path. Regulus wasn't as strong as he made out to be. He knew there was coercion in there, peer pressure... but his brother sought conformity rather than being fair and just.

Would Emmy judge him for that? Or... would she understand?

Emmy watched him pensively. Had she overstepped the mark... she knew his family was complex. Questioning him about his brother was probably the most daring thing she had asked him. But... she had to know.

Sirius thought about it again. If anyone would understand, who wasn't already one of the Marauders, it would be Emmy, who had quickly become such a close friend to him he didn't know where the time had gone; it felt like he had known her for years rather than weeks, and that he could open the floodgates and spill out his life and she would accept it, warts and all.

"Yeah, he is," Sirius finally said, and Emmy looked up at him, her violet eyes meeting his grey ones. "He's... not like me. He wants to conform to my family's whole pure blood ideology and impress my parents and be their perfect son. He's not like that though, underneath he's scared and he just wants to impress people. He does it to fit in. He... he told me, on the day I ran away, that he... he wants to be a Death Eater," Sirius explained. He glanced down at Emmy, who was digesting the information.

"But... he seems so nice..." she whispered.

"I don't like to make you promise things like this, but promise me you'll try to keep away from him as best as you can. Him and his stupid friends... they're just wrong and I don't want you brought into their sick games," Sirius said, half in anger and half in concern. There was no way his brother was getting close to Emmy, or even Caitlin, especially with what they had been through. He didn't want him making their lives any more difficult than they already had been made.

"I wouldn't let myself be dragged in," Emmy told him, "and I'm not promising, but I'll try."

"Okay, but just so you know, I have your best interests at heart," Sirius said quietly.

"You sound like I'm your daughter," Emmy half-smiled, breaking the tension.

"Well where would you be without me?" Sirius grinned as they reached the door to the Astronomy classroom, at the top of the North Tower.

"Probably already sat inside the Astronomy classroom, at my telescope, having started my work," she winked.

"Yeah right," he scoffed, pushing open the door and letting her inside.

_Hope you liked it, please leave a review! Thank you xxx_


	20. Cause For Excitement

**Bad Romance**

_By Lily Orange_

_A/N:_ Thank you so much for the reviews and everything, I'm glad you're still enjoying the story! I'm hoping – fingers crossed – to be updating regularly now, once or twice a week :) hope you're all okay and enjoy this chapter, please leave a review to let me know what you think! Xx

Chapter Twenty

_Cause For Excitement_

When they entered the Astronomy class, they were the last there so there were only two telescopes left for them to work by, sandwiched in between Aretha and James. Lily had avoided sitting anywhere near James, even though he had beckoned her over, and instead had sat on Aretha's other side and had gotten straight to work. Emmy took the seat by Aretha and Sirius the one by James, and took the blank star charts handed to them by Professor Sinistra on which they had to complete an accurate view of the constellations present in the night sky, to be compared to the previous week's chart for homework.

"Where did you go?" James hissed to Sirius as he blindly drew random dots of ink in lines and swirls across his chart. The Quidditch play was still on his mind – it had taken him five hours to get it half-done, but there was still the logistics of how it worked to be done, rather than just the method. Plus he was trying to work out what was going on with Lily and why she seemed to be ignoring him. That was something he wasn't used to – normally there was _some_ kind of recognition, even if it was in disgust. Hate, as James had always reminded Lily, was also a form of passion and was often what love is mistaken for.

"Well you moaned at me for eating you and nobody was talking to me and I was going to fall asleep if I just sat there so I went for a walk," Sirius murmured back, copying the sequence of stars James was plotting randomly on his page, but, with a quick reference to the careful diagram Emmy was beginning to ink out on her chart, he quickly erased it and started again.

"So you decided to walk with the girls? Man, couldn't you have invited me along? I could have spent some time with Lily!" James replied, inking together the random dots on his page in the shape of a guitar whilst thinking of a name to give his newfound constellation, which he would be able to compare to his previous week's snitch-shaped star formation.

"I wasn't really talking to them two, I was talking to Emmy!" Sirius retorted.

"Oh..." James faltered. "I was just wondering, because Lily seems to have been ignoring me all day, and she gave me this really weird look when she saw me at breakfast this morning."

"Why don't you ask her then?" Sirius suggested.

"That may be the most intelligent thing you've ever said to me, Padfoot," James said sarcastically.

"Well I do try," his best friend winked.

James looked behind to see if Professor Sinistra was looking in their direction and, luckily for him, she was busy having a discussion with Peter about Orion's belt, who seemed to be getting it very mixed up. Sinistra was quite a patient professor but even the most patient of people often got grated by Peter's endless questions and lack of understanding. He saw his chance, and quickly pulled a scrap piece of parchment out of his bag before dipping the end of his quill in the ink bottle next to his rather _interesting _star chart.

Lily was just etching an accurate view of the Dog Star when, out of the corner of her eye, she happened to see James whispering with Sirius. The view of him tore her away from her star chart and she surreptitiously focussed her eyes on him; that same feeling came over her and she knew that she definitely had a crush on him. That's all it was though, just a crush. It wasn't anything more serious than that – she didn't depend on him or anything, and it was something she could easily conquer in a matter of days, and then she would find a perfect boyfriend who would just endear her to him in every way and then she'd fall in love and then the rest would be history.

"Ow!" she heard Emmy gasp next to her, who clutched a hand to the side of her head, whilst groping around on the floor to retrieve whatever it was that had hit her – it turned out to be a ball of parchment, which had Lily's name written on the outside in an untidy scrawl Lily was pretty sure could be identified as James' infamously illegible handwriting.

"Guessing that's for you Lil," Aretha sniggered as Lily unfolded the parchment ball and read the note. "Let me guess, James' handiwork?"

"What does it say?" Emmy asked inquisitively.

"Um... it says 'Lily why are you ignoring me? Have I done something wrong and if I have I'm very sorry for any distress I may have caused you. Yours Marauderingly, James'," Lily read, and her two friends giggled.

"Are you ignoring him? That's a new tactic," Aretha remarked. Over the years she had been used to Lily dealing with James in a variety of ways: there were the numerous times that she had just yelled at him until he went away, then there were the glares across the table and the flicking of the porridge one morning... but never had she just ignored him.

"It's a, um, long story," Lily murmured, putting the note in her bag. James had already noticed. Whoops.

"Well can you send him one back 'cos he looks like he's about to throw another one and I don't want a hole in my head by the end of the class..." Emmy grinned, and Lily quickly scribbled a very expressive note of 'I'm not' and threw it back at him.

Aretha examined her best friend carefully. Lily was prone to blushing a lot because of her fair skin, but she could see that she was almost fighting an internal battle as she stabbed the chart with her quill. She could sense there was something Lily wasn't telling her, and she was determined to find out what it was.

"She says she's not," James grumbled as he unscrewed the parchment Lily had sent back to him.

"Well there you go then, it's obviously just a misunderstanding!" Sirius grinned back at him. "Problem solved!"

"Er, if you say so," James replied. "I'll talk to her sometime soon anyway. Maybe try my luck again..."

"You know, I was thinking Prongs," Remus cut in from James' other side, "maybe you should leave asking Lily for a while, maybe a few weeks? Then really take her by surprise and do something special."

"Aww, Moony, didn't know you cared!" James winked. "What did you have in mind for 'something special'?"

"I don't know, you have to think of it otherwise it's not exactly _special_, is it?" Remus pointed out.

"Oh alright," James whined, but secretly he was excited about planning something special for Lily. It would have to be spectacular, but subtle; romantic, but not soppy; something that would blow her away and make her realise that she liked him. James wasn't stupid; he could tell that there was at least an ounce of her that cared for him in that way. He just had to drag that ounce of her out and convince the rest of her that he was worth it.

Professor Sinistra took a seat behind her desk, examining the numerous large and ornate rings on her fingers. Her nails were painted a deep mauve that sparkled in the low lighting of the Astronomy Tower. The class was nearly over, and the sixth years had been very little trouble, apart from when she clocked Lily Evans and James Potter throwing balls of parchment at each other. She wasn't going to stop it unless it turned nasty, however; the staff had wagers on when they would eventually get together. She had betted three galleons on Christmas in sixth year, whereas Professor Sprout had betted four on by the Leavers' Ball in seventh year.

She glanced at the clock, and saw that it was just one in the morning, and she had an announcement to make before she dismissed them to go to bed.

"Okay, class is over now – don't look so eager to leave, Mr Black – but before you go I have an announcement to make about a trip that I will be running in a couple of weeks to enrich your Astronomy learning," Sinistra informed them.

"This'll be good – broomstick ride to Mars," Sirius hissed in Emmy's ear and she stifled a giggle.

"But it will also, in a way, be helpful if any of you are studying Muggle Studies. All fifth, sixth and seventh year Astronomy students will be going to study the stars on the Northumberland coastline, where the sky is particularly clear at this time of year. We will be going for a week and will be camping on a Muggle campsite near a Muggle village, and during the day you will have schoolwork to do but also will be able to go to the village as well as visit the actual beach–" Sinistra continued.

"Yay, skinny dipping!" Sirius said in a whisper loud enough for the Marauders, Emmy, Lily and Aretha to hear.

"Not being funny mate, but you can go freeze your bits off, it's October, not July," James replied.

"Ah, where's the fun in that attitude Prongsy?" Sirius said, making his eyes wide and begging at his best friend, who pushed his face away.

"–and the castle nearby. Permission forms have been sent to your families and we have received full permission for every student in the relevant classes to go, so ensure that you have previously collected your class work before we leave, midway through October, the day after the Saturday Hogsmeade visit," she carried on. "That's all, you can go."

"YAY! They're letting us loose at the seaside!" James cried in excitement as they put all their stuff in their bags. As he discussed the possibility of what might be in the Muggle town, for sneaking out at night purposes, with Remus, Sirius quietly approached Sinistra's desk.

"Professor?" he asked tentatively.

"Ah, Mr Black, Professor McGonagall sent your permission form, along with Mr Potter's, to his parents, and they issued consent for both of you to go. Is that alright?" she asked kindly.

"Yeah, thanks Professor," Sirius grinned, worried that they would have sent the form to his own parents, whom he had barely thought about since running away. The only time that he had really properly thought about them was at Caitlin's parents' funeral – and that was when he realised that although he had been presented with a family, he had made his own family amongst his friends that actually loved and appreciated him for who he was, and didn't persecute him for what he wasn't. Biologically, Walburga and Orion Black may be his parents – but in every aspect, they weren't.

Sirius would never call them Mother or Father again, even if his life depended on it.

_Did you like it? I'm so excited about the camping trip, it's going to be a bit like Duke of Edinburgh expedition but not with all the walking hahaa! There'll be much sneaking out, having fun and some drama as well... hope you're as excited as me! Thanks for reading and please review! Lots of love,_

_:) x Lily Orange x (:_


	21. Not The Best Party Ever

**Bad Romance**

_By Lily Orange_

_A/N:_ Sorry about the wait! Thank you for all the reviews, I hope you enjoy this one! Have a great week

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Chapter Twenty-One

_Not The Best Party Ever_

The beginning of October meant one thing for Regulus Black – it was his birthday, and this year, he was going to be sixteen. It wasn't exactly his coming-of-age, but he loved birthdays and he loved the fact that they always took over the Slytherin common room every year for one night and let loose from all their cunning plans and just had fun. He had heard so many rumours of the Marauders throwing amazing post-Quidditch, birthday and just random parties, and he wanted people to know that it wasn't just them who could pull off a party and have fun.

He had already overheard Seraphina boasting to Astilbe about how amazing her dress was for Regulus' party. Not that he had invited her. She had just assumed she was going and it was difficult to say no, considering it was in the common room. Seraphina seemed to be throwing herself at him and it was particularly uncomfortable, even though she was completely gorgeous, when all he could focus on were those mesmerizing violet eyes that belonged to Emmy Piper. All the other boys in the school had been going on about her cousin Caitlin, who was admittedly pretty but for some reason Regulus was immediately attracted to Emmy, who was quirkily different.

He wanted to get to know her better, literally. He didn't know anything about her, except that she was clever and had moved at the last minute from Albania with Caitlin because of some kind of family tragedy and was now staying with the Potters. That was why she knew his brother so well – whenever he saw her around school, she was virtually always with Sirius, laughing, joking, talking... he had always had a kind of jealousy for his older brother – and now it was embodied in Emmy Piper.

And if Emmy wore the dress he had heard Seraphina describing, he knew his jaw would drop the moment he saw her.

"So... ready for the party of a lifetime?" Antonin Dolohov asked, plonking himself down on the sofa next to him, and resting his feet alarmingly close to the steaming goblet of hot chocolate Regulus had just put down.

"Party of a lifetime?" Regulus echoed in amusement.

"Well, it's a well known fact you like to party," Dolohov replied with a grin.

"Almost as much as my brother," Regulus commented.

"Yeah, but it's the only thing you have in common with him," Dolohov reminded him almost forcefully. The Slytherins didn't like Sirius, or the Marauders, or anyone that wasn't a Slytherin really.

"I s'pose," Regulus said, leaning back in his chair. "So... can I know what's going on?"

"Sort of – charmed record player, wizard music, lots of dancing and food and probably much female contact," Dolohov said with a wink. Privately Regulus thought that Dolohov would not be having much female contact as he was not the best-looking boy in the world. It would more likely be Regulus getting the attention and the contact, but he only intended it to be with one person, who he had yet to invite to his party. It would normally be exclusively Slytherins – but he thought he could quite clearly make an exception for the blonde-haired, violet-eyed Gryffindor.

"Maybe just with one girl," Regulus replied, deciding to lead into his wish to invite Emmy Piper.

"One girl? Who's this then? I had no idea you had your sights set on someone – let me guess, is it Seraphina? She's all over you like dragon pox – but I doubt you'd have such a good time with dragon pox," he said, licking his lips in an alarming manner as he glanced over at the dark-haired beauty with her exotic looks, who was gossiping with her less-attractive friend Astilbe.

"Uh, no," Regulus couldn't deny it quick enough. Yes, Seraphina had been all over him like dragon pox – and it _was_ the equivalent of dragon pox.

"Who then? Seriously, I would be thinking about Seraphina – she clearly wants you," Dolohov advised.

"Doesn't mean I want her too," Regulus reminded him, "and she's not in our year."

"Is she in our house?" Dolohov asked, trying to recall all the girls in the years above and below that Regulus would possibly be interested in.

"No, she's not, she's one of the new girls," Regulus explained.

"Oh... you mean that dark-haired one? I always see her in the library writing, or with the Ravenclaws. She'd be an even better achievement than Seraphina, possibly. I've heard the boys in other houses talking about her in the corridors and in the toilets. What's her name, Caitlin?"

"No, I mean, yes her name is Caitlin and she is pretty, but I like her cousin, Emmy..." Regulus drifted off dreamily.

"She's a Gryffindor, and she's friends with your brother, that idiot James Potter and the mudblood Lily Evans," Dolohov stated plainly. Regulus noticed how uncomfortable he felt about the way Dolohov described Emmy's friends... it was unpleasant and he didn't like it.

"But it'd be okay for me to like her cousin?" Regulus said in incredulity.

"Well, Caitlin Piper's gorgeous, you could have a little liaison that wouldn't mean anything and then you could go back to normal," Dolohov informed him.

"Girls aren't just playthings," Regulus said, quite surprised at the compassionate words coming out of his mouth.

"Sorry, what?" Dolohov replied. "Didn't know you were into rights and all that sort of thing... what'll you be campaigning for next, the rights of house elves?" He began to laugh and Regulus grimaced.

"No... but I want to invite her to my party, and seeing as it's my party, and I like her, I think I will, and I don't need your permission to do so," Regulus growled, before picking up his goblet of hot chocolate and stalking up to his room. Tomorrow he would see her when she was on her way to Potions – tomorrow would be when he would ask her to his party.

Wednesday morning started quite peacefully for the Gryffindor sixth year girls. They all woke up after a nice, long sleep, and were lying in silence before Aretha saw the time on the clock by her bed.

"Merlin! It's nearly half eight!" she exclaimed, and all the girls sat bolt upright. They normally got up at seven, had showers, did their hair, got dressed, chatted, met the boys in the common room and then went to breakfast. But breakfast ended at precisely half eight and lessons commenced at a quarter to nine – so the girls literally had twenty minutes before their first lesson started – for all three, this meant Potions. Lily had been dreading this class since waking up on Monday morning, for, after all, it was the class she was partnered with James in, so there was no way she could avoid him. Aretha was looking forward to jinxing Mulciber in some way that meant she could do the potion by herself (last time she had given him a spontaneous outburst of boils). Emmy was looking forward to spending the lesson chatting to Sirius, who had quickly become a very close friend. Mary had already gone to meet Claude, just as she always did.

However... their normal routine had to be forgone if they had twenty minutes. Aretha quickly started casting straightening spells on her bobbed hair, which, no matter how hard she tried, always looked frightfully interesting whenever she woke up; this morning her fringe resembled an Elvis Presley quiff and the back of her hair looked like a birds' nest. Lily grabbed her clothes and decided to change in the cupboard and Emmy pushed her long, wavy hair back with a headband and shut herself in the bathroom to change out of her red pyjamas and into her school uniform.

Breakfast was long over by the time they came down to the common room, their books weighing their bags down as they ran towards the portrait hole, the boys nowhere to be seen. They faithfully waited them every morning, but once it got to eight, they went down to eat their breakfasts – though James and Sirius tended to eat the equivalent of four or five peoples' breakfasts every morning, much to the bemusement of the others.

"Five minutes till Potions starts – I have to say, I think fifteen minutes is probably our record for getting ready," Aretha grinned as they waited for the staircase to change and make their way down to the dungeons.

"Yeah, but you're not the one with flyaway hair," Lily grumbled, attempting to smooth her hair down.

"It looks fine Lil," Aretha reassured her as she jumped the last two steps and led them through a stone corridor which seemed to wind round most of the school before ending in a spiral staircase, which went down to the dungeons. They descended the steps, and slowed to a more leisurely pace as they realised only a few people were queuing up outside their classroom.

Emmy leaned up against the wall, setting her heavy bag on the floor, realising that her shoulder was really sore after carrying that leather satchel around everywhere. Aretha and Lily were stood in the queue in front of her, chatting about the Astronomy trip. Emmy couldn't wait – she loved being outdoors, and, even better, because it was mid-way through October that they were going so she couldn't get sunburnt! It was going to be so good – wandering around during the day, gazing at the stars at night, messing around with the Marauders, probably sneaking out somewhere if they were involved... just having fun.

Although there was a lot of schoolwork involved, Emmy felt like she'd had virtually non-stop fun ever since she'd arrived in England. Caitlin was okay – she was still writing to Tom two or three times a day, but had made some Ravenclaw friends that seemed nice.

But for Emmy – Gryffindor now seemed part of her family. Lily and Aretha had quickly become close friends, as had the Marauders – especially James and Sirius. They were practically her brothers, and whenever she was with them, she felt good and had an amazing time.

"Em, you coming?" Lily nudged her as Professor Slughorn began to admit people into the classroom. Emmy picked up her bag and trudged along, but before she could even make it through the door, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder. She turned and found herself looking up into the face of Regulus Black, who was smiling coyly at her. She didn't know what to make of it – she hadn't forgotten what Sirius had told her. It was ingrained in her memory – how could she forget it?

"Hi, Emmy," he began.

"Hi Regulus – what is it?" she replied, not wanting to be rude, but also wanting to get into the Potions class and sit down with Sirius. She felt confused by Regulus – he seemed so sweet and lovely to her but then his behaviour in Hogsmeade was an utter contradiction of that. He was some kind of enigma, and Emmy didn't think she wanted to stick around to crack the code.

"Well, I'm having a party in the Slytherin common room for my birthday at the end of the week and well, I wondered if you wanted to come?" he stuttered, hating how nervous she made him.

For Emmy, her reply was as instinctive as talking. "I'm really sorry, Regulus, but I can't, I'm busy this week," she replied.

Regulus wasn't used to people saying no. "You surely can't be busy all this week, it'd only be a couple of hours..."

"No, I'm sorry," she said, turning away to walk into the classroom. Regulus put a hand on her shoulder to stop her.

"But why? I thought we were friends," he frowned, his icy blue eyes confused about why the previously vibrant and friendly girl was being so cold towards him.

"So did I, up until I saw that little performance in Hogsmeade with the first years," she answered, pulling herself out of his grip and wandering into the classroom.

_

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Did you like it? Please leave a review to let me know what you think

_After this chapter, there's only two till the camping trip now! Lots of love, Lily Orange xxx_


	22. It's About Time

**Bad Romance**

_By Lily Orange_

_A/N: _I'm so sorry about the week-long update – I was hoping to update quicker but other stuff got in the way – so I hope you like this chapter! Please leave me a review to tell me what you think – and also to tell me whether you liked the new film! I thought it was so AWESOME and I saw it for the second time this morning :D and I might possibly be going to see it again in a few days... I absolutely love Daniel Radcliffe and Rupert Grint! Anyway, enjoy the chapter and thank you for your reviews and favourites and alerts :)

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Chapter Twenty-Two

_It's About Time_

Emmy was sitting in the Gryffindor common room with the Marauders, her legs resting in Sirius' lap as she read the current issue of _Witch Weekly_. After her encounter with Regulus earlier on in the week, she had been made much happier with the present Sirius had brought her from breakfast: a serviette, inside which was a bacon sandwich that he had made her at breakfast and obviously saved. Emmy had only just then realised how hungry she was, and was so touched by the gesture that she threw her arms around him.

It was now Friday night and the four of them, except James, who was wandering the corridors of Hogwarts for some reason, were sharing a huge box of Chocolate Cauldrons Remus' mum had sent them whilst relaxing. It had been a hard week, with a lot of work, and they were all quite tired. Aretha and Lily had already gone to bed, exhausted and rethinking the idea to have a girly sleepover, as they simply didn't have the energy. Sixth Year was taking its toll as they were about to enter October, and they couldn't wait for the camping trip, a beckoning holiday without work!

"What's going down in the celebrity news?" Sirius asked, poking his head around the cover of Emmy's magazine, to see an article she was reading, written by some random witch theorising that Paul McCartney was secretly a wizard and instead of growing up in Liverpool had actually secretly attended Hogwarts.

"Apparently Paul's secretly a wizard," Emmy informed him.

"What about Ringo?" Sirius grinned, clamouring to see the magazine.

"Um, muggle, according to this crazy woman. Why are you asking just about Ringo? What about John and George?" Emmy questioned, her violet eyes wide and her lips tugging at the corners into an amused smile.

"Ringo's my favourite," he replied.

"Why, because he's such a good drummer?" she suggested.

"Uh, no, his name's Ringo Starr! How good is _that_?" he said, and she laughed. It was so easy to be with Sirius – she couldn't believe she had only known him for a few weeks. James as well, he was like her brother. And she had almost told herself that Sirius was too – but she knew there was something more to it than just that. She could tell.

"I suppose it's the best name," she agreed.

"Obviously," Sirius winked, "because I am _always_, without fail, right."

"Correction: you'd like to _think _that you are always right, but, in actual fact – you're pretty much wrong. Except for this one case. Ringo has the best name," Emmy teased, and they both started laughing. Remus raised his eyebrows at Peter as Emmy crossed her legs, still in Sirius' lap. They were oblivious, chuckling away with each other. Remus had to say, and he didn't make observations on these sorts of things often, apart from with Lily and James (both of whom were so right for each other it was only a matter of time before Lily relented and said yes), but Emmy and Sirius had so much chemistry it was untrue. They were so natural with each other, which was rare seeing as they had only known each other a couple of weeks, just over a month... he could tell that, like with Lily and James, for Emmy and Sirius, it was probably only a matter of time that separated them from friendship and a relationship.

His musings were interrupted by the banging open of the portrait hole and the sound of James sprinting in and practically collapsing on the settee, panting heavily. He threw his arms and legs out as he started to breathe normally, his hazel eyes wide as if he had something really important or exciting to tell them.

"Uh, Prongsy? What's going on that's caused you to sprint up here, mate? You never sprint that fast! Apart from that time we pranked the Slytherins... I mean, the three hundred and four times we pranked the Slytherins... Seriously, mate, what's going down?" Sirius rambled, leaning forward and resting his elbows on Emmy's legs, which she slightly moved at, but not out of discomfort. Sirius' eyes met hers briefly and it seemed violets were dancing in the storm, even for those few nanoseconds before Emmy embarrassedly averted her gaze to James, her cheeks pink.

"Slytherins – I – saw – party!" James burst out between gasps, before deciding that the dramatics of his sprint could finish, so sat up, four pairs of eyes watching him in confusion.

"'Slytherins I saw party'?" Remus echoed in bemusement.

"Yeah, the Slytherins are having a party! I just went down to the dungeons to see if I could find some, er, pranking aids in the Potions store cupboard but there were all these people dancing _in the corridor _and loads of random weird music playing and – I thought I might possibly be sick – I saw _Snivellus _sn-snogging that Astilbe Moore underneath one of those funny candle holders," James grimaced at the memory; it was quite clearly something he wanted to erase from his mind at the soonest possible opportunity.

Sirius gagged and mimed being sick whilst Peter screwed up his face in disgust.

"She must be drunk," Remus said matter-of-factly.

"Remus! That's so mean! I'm sure he's, er, nicer than you all suggest..." Emmy trailed off, and now there were four pairs of eyes staring at her, in utter disbelief.

"I'm not being funny, he's the slimiest git I've ever seen," James said.

"He has a severe aversion to showers and shampoo," Sirius offered.

"He seems to think he is the best at everything and above everyone else," Remus informed them.

"Uh, he's weird and into dark magic?" Peter shrugged.

"I'll take your word for it – he does seem a bit weird though," Emmy answered, thinking to the greasy-haired boy who was partnered with Rosanna Ingram in their Potions lessons, who seemed to stare at Lily longingly whilst she argued vehemently with James about everything.

"Was that what you ran here to tell us? Because, quite frankly, my Friday night could do without that image circulating in my brain Prongs – I'm very surprised that your eyes aren't burning," Sirius moaned, and Emmy laughed. Remus smirked to himself – the chemistry between those two was electric, and he was pretty sure that everybody else had noticed it, not just him.

"No, it was more about the party. Do Slytherins actually party? Do they actually have fun or do they sleep in coffins and bite each other's heads off before stupefying each other?" James questioned and they all laughed, except Emmy, who had suddenly gone very pale.

"There aren't vampires in the school, are they?" she said.

"No, Jamesy was just kidding!" Sirius said, slinging his arm around her shoulders.

"Ahh, good," she smiled. "I'm sure Slytherins party, James, I was invited to that party, anyway, it was for Regulus' birthday."

"Your brother's birthday? Merlin, it is, isn't it?" Peter remarked, but Sirius cut across him, his eyes blazing.

"They invited _you_? _Who_ invited you?" Sirius growled at Emmy, his arm still around her protectively. Emmy could tell he was being serious, without the puns.

"Um, Regulus did," she replied.

"How do you know _him_?" Sirius continued his questioning.

"We chatted at Slughorn's little dinner, and he asked me to his party before Potions the other day," Emmy explained. Sirius bit his lip, and he caught James' eye, signalling that he wanted to talk to her alone. By now, the Marauders and Emmy were the only people left in the common room, everyone else had gone to bed, even the excitable little first years.

"Um, shall we go upstairs?" James suggested. Remus raised an eyebrow, but James just grabbed their arms and dragged them up the spiral staircase leading to their less-than-tidy bedroom.

Back downstairs, Sirius was thinking back to September the first, when they had come back to school. It seemed to click slightly – when he and James had seen Regulus staring at Emmy ravenously, like he wanted to jump across the tables and stick his tongue down her throat.

"_Regulus has been staring at Emmy all evening. He bumped into her on the platform at Hogsmeade and since then has been watching her like a hawk."_

_In synchronisation, both boys peered around Remus and Peter to look at the Slytherin table and observed the fact that Regulus' blue-grey eyes were locked on Emmy, and a small smile was playing on his lips._

"_Now that is creepy," James shuddered, shovelling more vegetables into his mouth rather crudely. It was at that moment that Lily actually chose to glimpse in his direction, and what she saw didn't exactly impress. James' table manners often left a lot to be desired. "I think," he began, his mouth full of a weird-coloured mush that used to be carrots and peas, "he is in love with her."_

"_He can't be, he's barely met her!" Sirius protested, then lowered his voice again as he didn't want Emmy to hear him. She was immersed in a conversation about which Quidditch player was most attractive with Lily, Aretha and Mary, so was oblivious. _

"_You said he bumped into her on the platform, did he speak to her?" James replied, grabbing a tureen of gravy and pouring more of it onto his plate. _

"_Bloody hell, Prongs, you're the gravy king!" Sirius laughed, before reverting his mind back to the issue in hand. "I don't think so. He was just looking at her. Like he is now. Like some kind of weird stalker. A bit like you, James."_

"_Like me?" James said in horror, looking back at Regulus' facial expression. "Merlin, I hope I'm not that pug-ugly!" _

_Both boys laughed heartily at this, and silently decided this was a matter not worth pursuing. There was no way Regulus liked Emmy, none at all. It wasn't even as if they would talk – he was a fifth-year Slytherin and she a sixth-year Gryffindor. The odds of it were highly unlikely. _

Except... maybe they weren't. Maybe Regulus did like Emmy, and Sirius had just been ignorant of it. A monster stirred within him and he wanted to lash out at something for some unknown reason – but then he remembered that Emmy wasn't at the party, and proceeded to question her about that.

"So... what did you say when he asked you?" he asked tentatively.

"I said 'No,' to which he asked 'Why?' – and then I replied that I was busy, and he said he thought we were friends, and I said so did I until I saw his little display in Hogsmeade," Emmy answered.

"So you've talked to him before?" Sirius continued.

"Yes, we got on well," Emmy replied, putting her half-finished copy of _Witch Weekly _down on the table, her eyebrows knitted in confusion.

"Merlin, why did you bother talking to him? He's an idiot!" Sirius grumbled.

"Sorry, but I didn't know that at the time!" Emmy cried in response.

"Yeah, alright, but he obviously likes you, you need to make sure he gets the message," he said gruffly.

"I'm sure he has, I don't think I've ever pushed someone away so clearly before," she said, her tone a little sharper than usual. Then she thought back to the day of her aunt and uncle's funeral, when she was alone in her room because Caitlin was in the treehouse with Tom – and the conversation she overheard. She wanted to know about who it was Sirius liked... for some reason, she felt compelled to ask and she wanted desperately to know.

He seemed to have calmed down slightly, so she cautiously asked him.

"So... would you make it obvious if you liked somebody?" she asked.

"Depends who it was," Sirius replied. Although his exterior looked calmer, his insides were boiling. He could almost grasp at why it made him so angry, the whole thing with Regulus liking Emmy... but it wasn't quite in his mind yet. He was wholly annoyed, and it wasn't really Emmy's fault – but now he was irritated, he was irritated, and he would need to sleep it off.

"So do you like someone then?" she said, coming right out and asking it. She had learned that life was too short to beat around the bush, so she went ploughing in.

"Yeah, I suppose I do," Sirius replied after hesitation – now he was thinking back to the conversation he had had with James. At the time, he had had a blurry vision of a blonde-haired, violet-eyed girl in mind – but, he had only known Emmy a short time. Loves and relationships and fancies sprung from knowing someone for quite a while, not just a couple of weeks... but maybe this was why Regulus' actions and feelings were making him so annoyed?

"So who is it?" she smiled playfully.

Sirius didn't know why he did it, but once the words were out of his mouth, he couldn't stop them. He didn't want to tell Emmy it was her – so instead he said the first name that came into his head.

"Aretha."

Emmy was shocked at why this stung. She didn't know why, but the fact that her beautiful six-foot-four male best friend (because that was what he was, he was the closest thing to a best friend he had ever had, now she thought about it – James was close second and then Lily and Aretha were pretty close friends too) liked her gorgeous, tall, exotic-looking friend stung.

"Oh, cool," Emmy said, but it was slightly half-hearted.

"We have a bit of a history together," Sirius attempted to explain – not adding the crucial words that their history was well and truly over and had never even been a relationship.

"I'm sure you'll make a lovely couple, can't see why she wouldn't like you too," Emmy said, plastering on a bright smile before declaring, "I'm a bit tired, see you in the morning?"

Sirius' stormy eyes followed her figure up the stairs, before hitting his head off the table. Why the _hell _had he just told her that he liked Aretha?

Sometimes, he knew that he really was an idiot.

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Did you like it? Hope you're all okay, please leave a review and thanks for reading!

x :) Lily Orange (: x


	23. Curse Of The GreenEyed Monster

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Bad Romance

_By Lily Orange_

_A/N: _Yay, a relatively quick update! There were loads of really nice reviews and I managed to write quickly so I thought I'd update THANK YOU SO MUCH! I love you all, you always make me happy! I hope you like this chapter, please let me know what you think :D

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Chapter Twenty-Three

_The Curse of the Green-Eyed Monster_

James Potter was quite sure that he wasn't going to give in to temptation. That same temptation had been sitting near to him for five years, hibiscus red hair waving softly to her shoulders and emerald eyes lighting up her face as she laughed with her friends. His fingers were tapping the table obsessively, and he was biting his lip in concentration. He didn't want to give in and ask Lily to Hogsmeade – it was the last one before the camping trip and he was trying the tactic of making her realise that she missed the attention he constantly gave her, and let her realise that deep down, she really did like him.

"Um, James, are you okay?" Emmy asked, her eyes meeting his, and then following his gaze to Lily, who was laughing with Aretha. "Oh... right... why don't you ask her to Hogsmeade?"

"That's exactly what I'm trying _not _to do," James grimaced – resisting temptation was much harder than he thought. No wonder, when they had made Sirius give up chocolate for a month that time in fourth year, they walked in one Thursday night to find him covered in a hundred different types of chocolate, having gorged himself on it after a week of not eating it. If James wasn't careful, he was going to find himself hiding under Lily's bed and immersing himself in her possessions.

"Why?" Emmy asked.

"Well, I'm trying the tactic that this week I've barely spoken to her unless I had to, and I'm not asking her to Hogsmeade because then, she'll realise that she likes me so then when we go on that camping trip on Sunday I'll start talking to her properly again and she'll realise," James explained, twirling the bits of bacon about on his plate with his fork.

"Sounds pretty logical to me – but to be honest, I'm sure she'd say yes," Emmy smiled, her eyes twinkling. Lily hadn't so much said that she liked James, but it was the only thing Emmy and Aretha could attribute her recent strange behaviour to; she tried to avoid James, and if they were in a group, avoid talking to him or eye contact, and now James had given up trying in order to make her face facts. It was kind of ironic, but Emmy was just waiting for it to happen... it would do soon.

"Everyone looking forward to Hogsmeade tomorrow?" Sirius jumped in, squirting a huge dollop of ketchup onto the sausage sandwich he was concocting in the seat next to James. He had decided to take drastic measures regarding his little slip of the tongue the other night, and was going to pursue Aretha in an attempt to make Emmy jealous. All he had been able to think about recently was her long golden-blonde hair and her violet eyes – and he had finally lifted off his rose-tinted glasses (though figurative) and had pretty much decided that he liked her. He wasn't sure of the magnitude of his crush yet, and he didn't know enough of it to determine how strong it was... but he knew he liked her.

"Yep," James said shortly, averting his eyes from Lily's direction.

"Sounds enthusiastic," Sirius winked, and Emmy smiled, but she wasn't feeling quite in it – plus she was aware that she had seriously neglected Caitlin for the past week, so she excused herself and nipped over to the Ravenclaw table, where there was a space next to her cousin, who was looking as effortlessly glamorous as ever, with her dark hair tied in a side plait and her olive eyes gleaming as she read a letter – no doubt from Tom.

"Hey Emmy," she grinned, throwing her arms around her cousin. Emmy was pleasantly surprised, and was really very happy about how good Tom made Caitlin feel. Caitlin had settled into Hogwarts, albeit a slower settle than Emmy, but she was there, and was sitting with some nice Ravenclaw girls, one or two of them in Emmy's Potions class – Autumn Timmins seemed to be a good friend to Caitlin, and Sirius and James both looked out for her.

"Good letter?" Emmy smirked in amusement, and Caitlin's tanned cheeks turned a faint shade of pink as she giggled.

"Yeah, pretty much," she replied, "but how are you?"

"I'm fine thanks," Emmy answered. "Same old same old!"

"What's going on between you and Sirius though?" Caitlin nudged her. "I've had reports" – she looked in Autumn's direction, who was smiling very openly over her boiled egg and toast – "that you two have a _lot _of chemistry!"

"We're just friends," Emmy said truthfully.

"You look as if you should be more," Caitlin assessed. "I think he likes you – judging by the way he treated you when we were at Charlus and Dorea's, I think it was almost instant from when you stepped in that room for breakfast!"

"Not really," Emmy shrugged.

"Just think about it – and I'll be watching!" Caitlin laughed. "I've got to go to Ancient Runes anyway, I'll maybe see you later?"

"Yeah probably, see you," Emmy said, giving her a quick hug before returning to the Gryffindor table, where her bacon sandwich remained surprisingly intact. She suspiciously poked it then looked up at Sirius and James, who were chatting away innocently about a new Quidditch play James was devising, which seemed to involve some strange criss-cross moves amongst the Chasers and some dives to throw off the opposition team.

"Is this safe to eat?" she asked Remus, the only sensible one at the table.

"I presume so," Remus replied over his copy of the _Daily Prophet_.

Emmy gingerly picked up the sandwich, and raised it towards her mouth – and slowly took a large bite out of it. She immediately regretted it once she saw Sirius and James turn to look at her, with matching roguish grins on their faces.

"What have you done?" she gabbled.

"Nothing," James said with a smile – "but you might want to look at your eyebrows..."

Emmy swiftly lifted a spoon from the table and examined her face in the back of it – to see lime green lines where her dark blonde eyebrows had previously been.

"Lovely," she said, widening her eyes at her two friends accusingly, who were laughing their heads off. She knew that Sirius had done it to lighten the mood, but, truth be told, she didn't really care that he liked Aretha...

That's what she kept telling herself, anyway.

"Well that was slightly strange and unexpected," Aretha declared as she waltzed into their room in the Gryffindor tower, where Emmy and Lily were picking outfits for the Hogsmeade trip, for which they were leaving in about fifteen minutes so they were attempting – and failing – to be quick. Aretha was already dressed, with her dark hair straightened in her bob and all her money put in her bag, which she was attempting to find under the masses of clothes Lily had unhelpfully dumped on her bed.

"What was?" Emmy asked as she pulled on her favourite coral jumper with the white vest top and black studded jeans she was wearing already. She slipped her feet into her brown boots and then tied her hair back in a loose bun before picking up her coat and her bag, whilst Lily was still deciding whether she should go with the green or the white top to go with her jeans.

"Sirius just asked me to spend the Hogsmeade trip with him," she smiled in bemusement. "He means as friends, I know he does, but it's nice to spend it with someone."

"Yeah, I guess it's just you and me, Em," Lily gabbled, frenziedly pulling on the green jumper and picking up her coat. "You know, it's surprising..."

"What is?" Emmy asked, wishing that it was _her _going to Hogsmeade just with Sirius. It was like when they went to Diagon Alley and London shopping together with James – she'd had such a good time and she gelled so well with the two boys.

"...James hasn't asked me to Hogsmeade," Lily said in a small, confused voice. Emmy suppressed a smile – James had done exactly what he had set out to do in not asking Lily out to the visit.

"Did you want him to?" Aretha asked, sharing a knowing, amused glance with Emmy.

"Well... I don't know," Lily admitted. It had been a few weeks since her Monday morning revelation and she still hadn't divulged it to anybody. It had also been a few weeks... and she still felt the same, and even though she didn't like to admit it, she felt it even more.

"It doesn't matter Lil, we'll be together – we can go clothes shopping," Emmy suggested.

"Come join us in the Three Broomsticks for lunch, I don't know if I can cope with Sirius' pranking ways for more than an hour," Aretha winked, and her two friends smiled, but Emmy couldn't help feel a little resentful. It wasn't that she was an attention-seeker... it was more she enjoyed Sirius' company.

"You did WHAT?" James exclaimed in disbelief. He and Sirius were waiting in the Entrance Hall for the others to come down so they could get in a carriage and go to Hogsmeade.

"I, um, asked Aretha to come to Hogsmeade with me..." Sirius drifted off.

"Er, why?" James asked.

"Because I wanted to..." Sirius offered half-heartedly.

"Come again?" James questioned.

"Well, I accidentally told Emmy I liked Aretha, and now I have to follow through with it..." Sirius explained.

"Why did you tell Emmy you liked Aretha?" James continued questioning him, his eyebrows raised so far up on his forehead that Sirius didn't think it humanly possible.

"Because... it was the first name that popped into my head..."

"Why were you talking about this anyway? And you quite obviously don't like Aretha. I'm not being funny, but it's pretty obvious that you have a thing for Emmy..." James scoffed.

"That's because I do," Sirius said glumly.

"What – you like Emmy? As in _like _like her?" James stopped in his tracks.

"Yep," Sirius replied, leaning against the cool stone wall.

"Was she the girl you were talking about that night after the funeral? The one who is 'tall and pretty with beautiful eyes'?" James said, everything clicking into place.

"The exact one," Sirius answered, clicking his fingers as his grey eyes focussed on the floor.

"And this is a proper bona-fide _like _like, not a little crush that would provoke us to think you have a lazy eye?" James continued.

"Yes, this is a proper bona-fide _like _like – I bloody like her, okay?" Sirius said gruffly.

"And you said to her that you like Aretha..." James said, his hazel eyes staring at his best friend intently.

"Yes," Sirius replied.

"You stupid, stupid boy!" James chastised him. "Why the _hippogriff _would you do that?"

"Believe me, mate, I don't quite know myself," Sirius answered. "It seemed like a good idea at the time!"

"Everything seems like a good idea at the time, Pads – making that 'I love you Lily Evans' banner in fourth year seemed like a good idea at the time; dyeing McGonagall's hair purple in fifth year seemed like a good idea at the time!" James reminded him.

"Yeah, but, to be fair Prongs, they were still and _always _will be a good idea," Sirius winked, and the two boys laughed. "Even if Lily did shave all your hair off whilst you were asleep in Potions the following day."

"I never did quite know why my hair took so long to grow back..." James reminisced, and Sirius coughed 'innocently'. James looked at his best friend. "It was you? That shampoo you gave me that you claimed would make my hair grow back in a WEEK?"

"Yeah – I replaced the label on the bottle, it originally said 'Bald and Beautiful'," Sirius sniggered as James shoved him into the pillar.

"So that's why it took months to grow back! Sometimes Padfoot, I think you are –" James began.

"–an evil genius?" Sirius interjected, and they both started chuckling again.

"That's one way to describe it – another would be 'complete arse'," James retorted, grinning, before looking towards the staircase, which Remus, Peter, Aretha, Lily and Emmy were descending. He couldn't help noticing how beautiful Lily looked, even though she was just wearing a plain green jumper, jeans and a dark grey coat, with no makeup and her hair just left loose.

"Hey, took you long enough," Sirius remarked as the others joined them. Aretha and Emmy had been laughing with each other before they stopped in front of the two boys – and it allowed Sirius a few moments to compare them... He could see exactly why he had liked Aretha, it was patently obvious. She was tall and exotic-looking with seductive eyes that looked like melted chocolate swirled with caramel, with a gorgeous figure to match. She was outspoken, extroverted and funny, pretty much like Sirius himself. As she sauntered over to him, friendly grin on her face, he could see why. But he could also see that he would only ever want to be friends with her, because standing beside her had been Emmy, and he automatically describe what was making him fall for her – because that's what it was, falling.

Unlike Aretha, Emmy painted an almost innocent and pale figure... but the innocence withered away as soon as her eyes met his. That shade of violet, speckled with chocolate brown, sapphire blue, emerald green, ice blue and golden brown, was utterly smouldering. Her hair was pulled back and she was wrapped up in that coral jumper she had bought on their shopping trip to London, the one that was in the exact perfect colour for her eyes, hair and skin...

Sirius knew that she was the one he wanted. And he had landed himself in what James would call "a big pile of hippogriff dung" – because now he couldn't hurt Aretha, but in the process he would be giving Emmy the complete wrong idea.

Emmy and Lily meandered along Hogsmeade high street together, not knowing quite which shops to go in. Professor Sinistra had already expressly told them that they wouldn't need anything fancy for the camping trip as they would be sightseeing or stargazing, not partying or carousing. However, Emmy was pretty sure that James and Sirius would engineer it so that they snuck out at least one night to the local town, even if it was just to go and eat somewhere different or for a walk.

"I'm buying a knock-out dress," Lily declared as they ambled to a stop outside Gladrags' Wizard Wear. "Even if I don't get to wear it, I'm still taking it with me."

"Good idea – and we can just try stuff on, if we wanted to," Emmy suggested, and they pushed open the door to the shop. It was full of dresses, tops, skirts, trousers, coats, hats, scarves, accessories, bags and anything you could think of in whatever colour you could think of. Lily immediately went for the green dresses, knowing that they were best to bring out her eyes and hair. She eventually picked up a silk shift dress, and went over to the rack where Emmy was looking.

Emmy had always gone for clothes in bright colours, but upon perusal of the rack, she had found a beautiful black lace dress, and immediately wanted to try it on.

"Oooh, I like this dress!" Emmy heard Lily call from the next changing room. Emmy stepped out, dressed in the black lace. Lily looked amazing in the green dress, and twirled around for Emmy. Lily then took in what Emmy was wearing – the black lace dress was form-fitting, and came down to three or four inches above the knee, with a low back with black ribbon lacing across it, and thin black straps across her shoulders.

"What do you think?" Emmy asked tentatively.

"Oh... My... Merlin... You have to get it Emmy! And if you won't, I'm buying it for you, it looks so good!" Lily eulogised. Emmy blushed.

"Thank you, I think I am going to get it – how about yours? It looks so beautiful!" Emmy smiled.

"I'm going to get it and shove in James Potter's face what he's missing," she chuckled wickedly – and then clapped her hand to her mouth after she realised what she had said.

"Lily..." Emmy grinned. "Something you're not telling us?"

Lily realised she probably couldn't hide it anymore, but she didn't want to admit it, even to her best friends. It was hard enough admitting it to herself – and she had realised that she had probably liked James much longer than she was willing to acknowledge.

"No, nothing," Lily replied, "why, what did I say?" She feigned innocence while examining how the emerald shift dress highlighted her curvy but petite figure.

"You said, and I quote, 'I'm going to get it and shove in James Potter's face what he's missing,'" Emmy informed her.

"Did I really say that?"

"Yes, I believe you did..."

"I must have meant something else... my brain runs away with me sometimes!"

"Sure it does, Lil, sure it does," Emmy smirked, before slipping back into her changing room and putting her normal clothes back on.

After paying for both of their dresses, plus a little bag Emmy had picked up as a present for Caitlin, Lily and Emmy decided to go and see the others in the Three Broomsticks, as they were both starving and fancied some of the delicious pumpkin pie that Madam Rosmerta was famous for making.

When they arrived, they saw Sirius, Remus, Aretha, Peter and James all crammed around a table in the corner by the bar, and Aretha waved at them. They quickly joined the group – Sirius and James looked visibly relieved and happy that Emmy and Lily had cut short their clothes shopping trip. James was regretting not giving into temptation and Sirius was regretting telling Emmy that he liked Aretha.

"Ooh, what did you buy?" Aretha grinned, peering into the Gladrags' carrier bags the two girls were clutching.

"It's a secret," Lily smiled childishly, "besides, you might see them next week."

"When we go camping?" Aretha raised an eyebrow.

"Um, Sirius promised me that we would be sneaking out somewhere at least once, so I am holding him to his word just so I can wear this," Emmy teased. Sirius' eyes lit up at the banter she was presenting him with.

"Well, I don't know... I'm not really the sneaking out type, I _hate _to break rules," Sirius said in a regretful tone.

"That is the biggest lie I have heard this whole decade," James remarked before snorting bubbles in his Butterbeer, which Lily surprisingly found quite endearing. She liked how boyishly innocent James seemed at times.

"No, the biggest lie you heard was that the weird Slytherin kid, Goyle, had had a bath in the last six months," Sirius guffawed.

"True, very true," James conceded, then grinned impishly at Emmy, Lily and Aretha. "Of course we're sneaking out, who do you think we are, Moony?"

"Thanks Prongs, thanks a lot," Remus said sarcastically as James patted him on the back. "I'm not even going, neither's Peter, so you'll have to cope without me for a week..."

"No trouble, Moonykins," James laughed, "piece of absolute _cake_!"

"Speaking of absolute cake... shall we order some?" Sirius suggested hungrily.

"Best idea of the decade award goes to Paddykins Black – Rosmerta, your finest chocolate fudge cake for all of us!" James yelled over the bar to the attractive blonde barmaid, who smiled and began to cut them all a slice.

The camping trip, Sirius realised, was going to be great, even though he had messed up. And, as James' mum had always said to them both, no mistakes were ever unfixable.

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Did you like it? I hope you did! Thank you for reading :D Hahaa I'm in a really good mood, I hope you're all okay – and HOW GOOD WAS THE DEATHLY HALLOWS? I am not ashamed to say I am going to see it for a third time hahaa :D I have pure love for Daniel Radcliffe! Anyway, thank you!

x :) Lily Orange (: x


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